Afghan War's Estimated Cost at One Billion Dollars for First Month: Analysts |
|
The Pentagon has yet to tally up the costs of its month-old military campaign in Afghanistan, but experts estimate that it has cost close to a billion dollars so far.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
The Pentagon has yet to tally up the costs of its month-old military campaign in Afghanistan, but experts estimate that it has cost close to a billion dollars so far.
Of the 40 billion dollars in emergency funds approved by the US Congress after the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, 12.8 billion has been earmarked for the Defense Department, Pentagon spokeswoman Susan Hansen said.
But the funds cover the Pentagon's estimated costs for beefing up US domestic defenses as well as the military campaign in Afghanistan.
The Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington think tank that specializes in defense issues, estimates that Operation Enduring Freedom is costing between 500 million and one billion dollars a month.
"Estimating the costs of military operations is an inherently difficult and uncertain task," Steve Kosiak, the center's budget expert, said in a paper on the war's costs.
"It is made even more difficult in this case because the operation is ongoing and because DoD (the Department of Defense) has provided fewer details concerning this campaign than it did during some past military operations," he wrote.
But using the 1991 Gulf War as a guide, the 2,000 strike missions flown so far would cost about 860 million dollars by Kosiak's estimates.
Add 90 million dollars for the estimated 90 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles fired by US Navy ships.
Kosiak estimates that deploying ground troops in Uzbekistan would cost the Pentagon another 25 million dollars, an estimate he bases on the cost of past and ongoing peacekeeping operations. The special forces deployed will cost at least several million more.
|
|
|
|