- WASHINGTON (AP) -- The ongoing
war in Iraq cost about $4 billion in September, spiked to $7 billion in
October and hit just under $3 billion in November, the Pentagon said Wednesday
in its latest report on how much the military operation costs.
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- That amounted to roughly $14 billion spent on U.S. military
operations in Iraq over the three-month period late last year, the latest
figures available, said Dov Zakheim, the Pentagon's chief financial official.
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- He said analysts were trying to determine why the costs
spiked in October.
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- Officials previously had said the occupation of Iraq
is costing $1 billion a week.
-
- Zakheim also sought to allay concerns, expressed by top
military chiefs to a congressional committee Tuesday, that the Pentagon
would run out of money to finance the efforts.
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- The Iraq war and occupation, along with the ongoing operations
in Afghanistan, are being paid for through supplemental spending bills
that are approved by Congress outside of the regular budget process.
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- Already, Congress has approved $166 billion for those
operations. The Pentagon has said it does not expect the Bush administration
to seek another spending bill until January 2005, but the chiefs of the
Army, Air Force and Marine Corps suggested Tuesday that money will run
out by the end of September.
-
- Zakheim said Wednesday that the military can fill the
gap by borrowing money from other operations and maintenance accounts.
This causes some repairs and maintenance work to be delayed, but Zakheim
said this would not lead to permanent problems if a supplemental spending
bill were approved by the following spring.
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- Why wait? Zakheim said the Pentagon wanted to see how
events in Iraq unfold this year before deciding how much money it will
need.
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- He denied the suggestion that the Bush administration
was waiting until after the November elections to prevent the cost from
becoming a political issue.
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-
- http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap
/20040212/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_war_cost_2
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