Pentagon Says Iraq War Has Cost 48 Billion Dollars

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, July 16, 2003

Pentagon Says Iraq War Has Cost 48 Billion Dollars

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The military expenses for the Iraq war and its aftermath have cost the Pentagon about 48 billion US dollars so far and are expected to total 58 billion dollars by the end of September, a defense official said Tuesday.

Dov Zakheim, the Defense Department's comptroller, told local media that the estimated cost so far covers the actual combat phase, from March 20 to May 1, postwar stabilization efforts and 30 billion dollars in prewar military buildup.

The cost peaked at roughly 5 billion dollars during the heavy combat phase and has fallen back below 4 billion a month, officials said.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told a Congressional hearing last week that cost estimate for the Iraq campaign had reached 3.9 billion dollars per month, on average from January through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.

This monthly figure is almost double the 2 billion dollars per month estimate issued by administration officials in April. Pentagon officials said the updated monthly average of 3.9 billion dollars is the estimated cost to maintain the current force level in Iraq, which includes expenses for military operations but not reconstruction costs.

General Tommy Franks, who led the Iraq war, said last week thatviolence and uncertainty in Iraq made it unlikely that US troop levels, which stand at about 145,000, would be reduced "for the foreseeable future."

Zakheim did not give an estimate for monthly US military costs after Sept. 30 because numerous factors remain unknown, including the size of the future US military presence needed there and the number of international troops who might arrive to help with peacekeeping in Iraq.

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