Funding the Iraq war on the QT-- great article in Chicago Tribune

[TexasLawyer]

Funding the Iraq war on the QT

By Gordon Adams, a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington
Published January 2, 2007


The war in Iraq is not cheap: weekly spending of about $2 billion; monthly spending of about $8 billion, and going up, according to estimates. Overall, the war will easily end up costing $1 trillion, and maybe substantially more if President Bush decides to "surge" the forces this year. <snip> The Pentagon's method for Iraq budgeting makes it impossible to calculate the true cost of the war:

- The Pentagon doesn't ask Congress for money for Iraq; it asks for money for the global war on terrorism, or GWOT, without sorting out what belongs to Iraq, what to Afghanistan and what to other operations. Congress has already provided more than $500 billion for the GWOT, roughly 75 percent of it for Iraq.

- The Pentagon doesn't provide details on what the funds will be spent on. Instead, it asks for lump sums for things like "operations and maintenance, Army," and hopes to be trusted that those funds will go toward Iraq and not some other operation.

- The Pentagon sends up the GWOT budget as an "emergency," which means it hasn't been through the tough scrutiny of its own budget offices.

- The Pentagon has asked for things that aren't emergencies, like helicopters and aircraft and funds to transform Army divisions into separate operating brigades. These belong in the regular budget, but the Iraq emergency is a handy way to buy things that wouldn't fit in the regular budget.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0701020066jan02,1,7937704.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed