Even Ending a War Can't Be Done on the Cheap, GAO Warns
www.antiwar.com
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report today (PDF) examining the ongoing costs of the Iraq war. The report concludes that despite the enormous costs associated with fighting the Iraq war over the past six years, Congress should expect costs to actually increase as the Obama Administration moves through its so-called pullout plan.
The Obama plan would reduce the current troop commitment from 138,000 to roughly 50,000, who would remain indefinitely. Yet the costs associated with withdrawing the troops and turning over the hundreds of American bases to the Iraqi government would be “significant,” the report concludes.
The report will likely shoot enormous holes in the Obama Administration’s budget, as they had projected enormous savings over the next few years and were budgeting $50 billion, roughly a third of what it will be this year, past fiscal 2010. The report indicates that this is beyond wishful thinking.
punditman says... This is what happens when you have a "withdrawal plan" that is not really a withdrawal plan. An analogy: when you decide to not go out to restaurants and pubs as often and stay home instead, you don't expect it to cost you more--unless of course you train and pay someone to work in your kitchen and pay someone else to deliver beer to your door.
Maybe Obama has to rethink his Iraq strategy? Maybe he should make it a real withdrawal plan? Maybe the Congress of the United States should do what they did during the Vietnam era and finally decide to cut off funding for this sucky war? It may not be a pretty scene when the last helicopters leave the Green zone, but leave they will. It is only a question of how much more money is first thrown into yet another black hole.
