Cost of War

The Costs of America's Major Wars

Total Direct Cost Percent of
billions of 2002 dollars Annual GDP

Revolutionary War (1785-83) $2.2 63%

War of 1812 (1812-15) $1.1 13%

Mexican War (1846-48) $1.6 3%

Civil War (1861-65)* $62.0 104%

Spanish American War (1898) $9.6 3%

World War 1 (1917-18) $190.6 24%

World War 11 (1941-45) $2,896.3 130%

Korea (1950-53) $335.9 15%

Vietnam (1964-72) $494.3 12%

Persian Gulf War (1990-91) $76.1 1%

*Combined Union and Confederate costs

DATA: War with Iraq: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives, by Kaysen,
Miller, Malin, Nordhaus, & Steinbruner
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White House Cuts Estimate of Cost of War With Iraq
(January 2, 2003)

By Elisabeth Bumiller
http://www.iraqfoundation.org/news/2003/ajan/2_whitehouse.html

WASHINGTON, Dec. 30 — The administration's top budget official estimated today that the cost of a war with Iraq could be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion, a figure that is well below earlier estimates from White House officials.

In a telephone interview today, the official, Mitchell E. Daniels Jr., director of the Office of Management and Budget, also said there was likely to be a deficit in the fiscal 2004 budget, though he declined to specify how large it would be. The administration is scheduled to present its budget to Congress on Feb. 3.

Mr. Daniels would not provide specific costs for either a long or a short military campaign against Saddam Hussein. But he said that the administration was budgeting for both, and that earlier estimates of $100 billion to $200 billion in Iraq war costs by Lawrence B. Lindsey, Mr. Bush's former chief economic adviser, were too high.

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Tue, Mar. 25, 2003

Bush sets $75 billion price tag for Iraq war

BY JAMES KUHNHENN- Washington Bureau
http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/5473832.htm?1c


WASHINGTON — President Bush asked Congress on Monday for nearly $75 billion to pay for the war in Iraq and also to cover additional foreign aid and homeland security costs.

The biggest portion — $63 billion — would go to the Defense Department to pay for the buildup of forces in the Persian Gulf, 30 days of combat in Iraq and assorted other expenses related to the war on terrorism. Another $8 billion would go to foreign aid to governments in the Middle East and $4 billion for homeland security

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Monday, September 8, 2003

Bush to ask billions more for Iraq
President says he also will ask other nations to help

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/09/07/bush.speech/

President Bush told Americans he will ask Congress for an additional $87 billion to continue the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He will also ask more nations to help pay the cost.

"This will take time and require sacrifice. Yet we will do whatever is necessary -- we will spend whatever is necessary -- to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom, and to make our own nation more secure," Bush said.

A congressional source said Bush's request is based on assumptions that the cost of military operations in Iraq alone will exceed $4 billion a month for at least the next year.

Billions more will be used for the reconstruction effort, which the White House at one point said would be paid for largely through the sales of Iraqi oil.

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Bush asks for $25 billion more

Thu May 6, 2004

By William Neikirk Tribune senior correspondent
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2027&e=16&u=/chitribts/bushasksfor25billionmore

President Bush asked Congress on Wednesday to make a $25 billion "down payment" on financing American operations in Iraq and Afghanistan next year, saying that "we must make sure there is no disruption in funding for our troops."

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Thursday, May 13, 2004

War cost will top $50 billion, Pentagon official says

ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/05/13/national1617EDT0720.DTL

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost more than $50 billion next year, a top Defense Department official told Congress Thursday in the Bush administration's clearest description yet of the conflicts' price tags.

The remarks by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz's edged the administration toward critics' estimates that combat will cost closer to $75 billion in the budget year that starts Oct. 1. White House budget chief Joshua Bolten said earlier this year that $50 billion might be the "upper limit" on next year's war spending.

Wolfowitz also seemed to open the door to compromise over the White House's unusual request for full control over the first $25 billion for the wars. Congress is expected to provide the money, but members of the Senate Armed Services Committee were critical of the unfettered flexibility the proposal would give the president.

"Our forefathers would have scorned such arrogance as has been demonstrated by this administration in this request," said Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.

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What happened to the seized assets and the contributions from other countries? Oil Revenues? Remember the testimony?

Testimony as Delivered by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, and Director, Office of Management and Budget, Joshua Bolten, and Acting Chief of Staff, U.S. Army, General John Keane
http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/2003/sp20030729-depsecdef0385.html

Tuesday, July 29, 2003.

Joshua Bolten, and Acting Chief of Staf:

In the oil area, in addition to rebuilding critical infrastructure, rapid restoration of Iraqi oil production is a high and crucial priority. Crude oil production already exceeds 1 million barrels per day. Future production levels will depend on many variables, including the availability of adequate power and security of the oil infrastructure, though Ambassador Bremer now expects by the end of summer to have oil production at a level of around 1-1/2 million barrels per day.

In the economy, Ambassador Bremer identified the CPA's broader task in the current economic field as two-fold. First, to stabilize the current economic situation, which they are doing in part by continuing payment of public sector salaries and pensions, and by funding a range of infrastructure construction projects. Second, to promote long-term growth, which they are doing through measures designed, for example, to establish a sound currency, to create an independent central bank and to build a modern banking system.

To pursue these and other important ongoing efforts in Iraq, we began with approximately $7.7 billion from a number of sources. Approximately $600 million was provided from DOD accounts to support CPA operations. Approximately $3 billion was appropriated by Congress in the war supplemental, of which about $500 million was provided to the Department of Defense for oil field repair. Roughly $500 million was drawn early from appropriate 2003 foreign assistance accounts.

Added to these appropriated funds are the following: about $1.7 billion in Iraqi state frozen assets in the U.S., referred to as vested assets, about $800 million in cash and other assets found in Iraq -- those are referred to as seized assets -- and finally, over $1 billion in oil receipts were transferred by the United Nations into a new Development Fund for Iraq, the DFI. We expect additional resources frozen in other countries eventually to be transferred to the DFI.

The recent Section 1506 report provides Congress the status of these funds as of June 30. I'll highlight some of the key numbers, what we've spent so far and on what, the details of which are available in the full report.

Through the end of June, the U.S. government has allocated slightly more than $2.7 billion. Of that $2.7 billion, approximately $750 million came from seized and vested Iraqi state assets, the remainder from funds appropriated by Congress.

The $2.5 billion allocated so far includes funding for the following activities: $730 million for relief efforts to reestablish food distribution, provide medical supplies, purchase fuels and provide other humanitarian efforts; $400 million for emergency payments and salaries for civil servants and other workers in various sectors and for pensioners; $1.37 billion for reconstruction activities, including reestablishing critical services, ministries, oil production and security forces; and $200 million for activities that support the operations of the CPA in Baghdad. Mr. Chairman, as a result of these allocations, roughly $5 billion in funds remain. The picture as of June 30 looks like this: Of the original $4.1 billion in funds appropriated by Congress, approximately $2.2 billion remained as of June 30. Of the original $2.5 billion in seized and vested Iraqi state assets, approximately $1.8 billion remained. And just over $1 billion remains in the DFI account.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

SEN. BIDEN: Oh, come on now! Does anybody here at the table think we're going to be down below 100,000 forces in the next calendar year? Raise your hand, any one of you. You know it's going to be more than that. See, you know at least it's going to be $2-1/2 billion a month. Give me a break, will you? When are you guys starting to be honest with us? Come on! I mean, this is ridiculous. You're not even --

MR. WOLFOWITZ: Senator, to suggest that this is an issue of honesty really is very --

SEN. BIDEN: It is a suggestion --

MR. WOLFOWITZ: Oh, it isn't. It is very misleading.

SEN. BIDEN: -- of candor, of candor, of candor. You know there's going to be at least 100,000 American forces there for the next calendar year, and you're not asking us for any money --

MR. WOLFOWITZ: Senator, I don't know what we're going to have there.

SEN. BIDEN: Let me finish, please. Let me finish.

MR. WOLFOWITZ: Okay.

SEN. BIDEN: And you are not asking us for any money in next year's budget for those troops. Now what do you call that? MR. WOLFOWITZ: Senator, there will be a supplemental request. There is no question about that. And there will be a supplemental request when we think we can make a reasonably good estimate of what will get us through the whole year, so that we don't have to keep coming up here with one supplemental request after another.

So I don't sit here and say, well, maybe the number is going to be 100,000, and then it turns out it's 120,000, and then people accuse us of being misleading or dishonest.

SEN. BIDEN: No, I think --

MR. WOLFOWITZ: We know what the number is now. We know what we're trying to do in terms of enlisting other countries. We don't know whether the Paks are going to come through with a division, we don't know whether the Turks are going to come through with a division, we don't know how rapidly we're going to be able to train Iraqis --

SEN. BIDEN: Are you suggesting, if, in fact, they come through with divisions we're going to reduce American forces?

MR. WOLFOWITZ: If they -- I believe that's exactly the purpose of getting foreign troops in. In fact, in southern Iraq today we are handing --

SEN. BIDEN: Reduce American forces.

MR. WOLFOWITZ: -- we are handing responsibility for key provinces of Iraq over to the Poles and the Spaniards and the Italians, and we're taking Marines out, we're not replacing them with Americans. So --

SEN. BIDEN: So we're going to have a net reduction of American forces for the --

MR. WOLFOWITZ: I'm not predicting, Senator. I don't know. Until we get these Ba'athist criminals under control, we're going to put in whatever it takes to do the job. But we are trying to get other people to fill in for us, we're trying to get Iraqis to fill in for us. And I think by the end of the year or early next year we'll have a much better fix on what it takes to get through the year.

SEN. BIDEN: I mean, any expectation that you're going to be able to stand up an Iraqi army of any consequence in the next six months?

MR. WOLFOWITZ: There are two different things here, and thanks for giving me the chance to explain it. We are working on training an Iraqi army, which is a two- to three-year project, to produce regular units, lots of training, lots of discipline. You don't need that kind of an army to guard fixed power lines, you don't need that kind of an army to take over from Marines guarding hospitals, you don't need that kind of an army to guard banks --

SEN. BIDEN: That's a civilian defense force you're talking about.

MR. WOLFOWITZ: It's a civilian defense force. We believe we can have --

SEN. BIDEN: How long do you expect to have --

MR. WOLFOWITZ: -- thousands of those people available within about 45 days. That's --

SEN. BIDEN: Within 45 days. And how about the police?

MR. WOLFOWITZ: The police we're standing up rapidly. And as you noted correctly at the police academy, they're not all equally good. I visited a group down in Basra that still are struggling. But up north in Kirkuk, for example, Iraqi police have taken over the whole function of --

SEN. BIDEN: Iraqi police have taken over in -- well. Okay. I -- (laughs) -- I find this kind of incredible. The picture you painted is -- are there any substantive changes of consequence you are recommending to the president, or is everything going along as planned, you've kind of got everything on course here, and everything's pretty well in hand? I mean, you told us about how the military says we're well ahead of where we were in Bosnia, and -- are you happy with where we are right now?

MR. WOLFOWITZ: Senator, I'm not happy with where we are right now. And if there's any way to accelerate anything, we are looking at it. We are looking at how to accelerate training Iraqis. I've talked about that at some length. We're looking at emergency ways of accelerating electric power production. Some of that is already underway. I believe the reason we were able to get the oil production up over a million barrels a day was because we brought in portable generators to provide electricity. That's the kind of thing --

SEN. BIDEN: The report called for what, 5,000 of those? Are they up, 500 diesel-driven emergency generators to be installed? Are they -- are they up and running?

MR. WOLFOWITZ: I don't -- I can check that for the record. I don't know the detail. But that is an example of where we're looking at acceleration. We're looking at acceleration in some nonmilitary areas. For example, up north, one of the big issues is so-called de- Arabization. A lot of Kurds and some Turks were moved out of their homes in a kind of slow-motion ethnic cleansing, and Arabs were moved in. The Arabs would be happy to leave, but it's going to take some money and some legal efforts to do that. We'd like to get that started more quickly than was originally planned. Your point, Senator, which I agree with, is there's a window of opportunity here. I can't measure how long it is. But I do believe that the sooner we move within that window, the better off we'll be further out in the future, and that money invested now, even if it's not quite efficient, will save us a lot of money in the long run. And money invested on the civil side can help bring!

down that $4 billion a month that we're currently spending on our troops.

SEN. BIDEN: My time's up, but I'm confused. General Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said if we get these 30,000 additional foreign troops, that there will be -- not enough for us to reduce our military in Iraq for months, possibly years, and he said we need more than 30,000, and even that. I don't get you guys. I mean, Myers says that; you're telling me we get these additional troops, we're going to draw down American troops.

>>>>>>>>>>>

SEN. BIDEN: Mr. Chairman?

SEN. LUGAR: Senator Biden.

SEN. BIDEN: Mr. Chairman, if I could just briefly close my comments by saying that there was an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer on the 13th of -- two weeks ago -- it said, "A small circle of civilians in the Defense Department who dominated the plan for post-war Iraq failed to prepare for the setbacks that have erupted over the past two months." Based on the testimony I hear today, I think we're making the same mistake again. I think you're failing to prepare for what is the reality on the ground. I no more agree, just for the record, with your assessment that Iraqi -- that Iraq is the hotbed of terror now than I did when your assertions about al Qaeda connections at the front end, and I voted to go into Iraq, and I'd vote to do it again. And it seems to me the failure of Iraq could be a lot worse than anything that happened before Iraq. The president, it seems to me, has to tell the American people, General, you were saying earlier, prepare them for what!

is expected of them. And it's going to be tens of billions of dollars, and tens of thousands of troops for an extended period of time. That window is going to close in Iraq. And it's also going to close, as my friend Senator Corzine was implying, in terms of American public opinion if we don't start to level with them. Our credibility as a nation is at stake right now, and I think you're going to lose the American people if you don't come forward now and tell them that you know it's going to cost tens of billions of dollars of American taxpayers' dollars, and tens of thousands of American troops for an extended period of time. They think Johnny and Jane are going to come marching home.

And I'll also point out that you need cops now, you need a different mix of troops now, and I didn't hear anything today to indicate that you're going to get that to happen. I think you got it wrong in the first place in terms of pre-war planning. The assumptions, as you said, Mr. Secretary, turned out to be an understatement of the problem. I think you're understating the problem again. We can do this. We can win this. We can win the peace, but you better start to tell the American people now or they're not going to be around. They're not going to be around. They're going to be asking us to bring the boys and girls home, which would be a tragic mistake. So, level with them. Billions of dollars, tens of thousands of troops. I'll vote for it. I'll support it. I'll stay with you. The president has to tell them now. Now. Now. Now.

SEN. LUGAR: Well, let me thank all the senators. I thank the witnesses, especially for your testimony, staying with the hearing. We are at the end of the roll call vote, and this is why senators have disappeared. But we appreciate very, very much your being here today, and we look forward to staying closely in touch with you. MR. WOLFOWITZ: And Mr. Chairman, if I might for the record submit some refinement on those numbers in CPA that Senator Dodd referred to. I believe it's very important -- the State Department role in this is crucial -- I think those numbers don't quite portray what the balance is, because --

SEN. LUGAR: Please supplement the record, and it will be included.

MR. WOLFOWITZ: Thank you.



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Powell wasn't told of $25 billion Iraq request

By Kathy Kiely and Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-05-06-powell-funding_x.htm

WASHINGTON — Shortly before Bush administration officials presented Republican congressional leaders with a request for $25 billion in Iraq funding this week, Secretary of State Colin Powell was telling members of the Congressional Black Caucus that no such request would be forthcoming.

Powell's associates tried to downplay the mix-up of him not knowing about the $25 billion request for funding in Iraq.

Powell's associates tried to downplay the mix-up. But it underscores the continuing rift between President Bush's departments of State and Defense and deepens the impression that the nation's top diplomat is being cut out of the decision-making process. "It's unbelievable that our chief diplomat is not being heard," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., another Black Caucus member. "It's tragic and it's dangerous."

Powell recently denied a report in a book by journalist Bob Woodward that he's not on speaking terms with Vice President Cheney. This week, he had to tamp down fresh rumors that he's poised to leave the administration.


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