WASHINGTON, 19 April 2003 — The war in Iraq has already cost the United States around $20 billion — $3 billion of that in munitions — and the cost of keeping troops in the country will run at $2 billion a month, the Pentagon says.
These figures appear to be within expectations implicit in the $75 billion requested by the White House in March for the next six months, and approved, with some extraneous additions, by Congress before its Easter recess. But the ultimate financial burden for Washington is unknowable, and will depend on how conditions develop inside Iraq, and the degree to which US allies, many of them opposed to the war, are prepared to help in the aftermath. The biggest uncertainty is the size of the peacekeeping force needed as post-Saddam Iraq moves towards what the Bush administration hopes will be a stable and democratic state.
Pentagon planners acknowledge that the US military is already preparing the groundwork for an extended stay, either alone or accompanied by forces from NATO.
“I wish I could say this was winding down, but I can’t. A lot more work remains to be done,” Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff , said Thursday.
