War on Terror: Each Trooper Costs $1 Million A Year

Already $1.2 trillion spent and still $500 billion in the pipeline, and no end in sight. You would have thought that after going after a non-existing Terror Figure, and spending $1.2 trillion to kill that phantom who never existed might put an end to this human, financial and economic waste. But that wouldn't be counting on our Nobel-Prize Winner, President Obama... And the budget crisis? Oh well, this is just show-biz. Extend and Pretend.

An interesting stat comes out of this report: each trooper costs the US tax payer $1,000,000 a year...

June 21 (Bloomberg) -- The Pentagon says it has spent at least $1 trillion prosecuting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and defending the U.S. homeland, according to newly released Defense Department figures through April 30.

Spending growth on Afghanistan operations helped push the Pentagon over the $1 trillion mark, increasing to $6.2 billion per month in April from $4.3 billion in the first two months of fiscal 2011 that began Oct. 1. Afghanistan spending in fiscal 2009, as Barack Obama became president, averaged $3.9 billion per month.

The spending total includes war-related operations, transportation, special combat pay and benefits, food, medical services, maintenance, replacement of lost combat equipment and building the Iraq and Afghanistan security forces.

Still, the $1 trillion does not include about $95 billion in funds appropriated but still to put on contract or paid to personnel to cover operational costs over the rest of the fiscal year as well as procurement of replacement weapons systems and construction that take years to spend, said Amy Belasco, a Congressional Research Service budget expert.

It also does not include about $100 billion the Pentagon excludes as not ‘war-related,’ such as intelligence, Belasco said. Nor does it include long-term costs for Veterans Administration care, disability costs for wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, or all reconstruction funding for the war- damaged countries.

“This figure represents how much we have actually spent on the wars up to this point,” said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert with the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. “What it doesn’t tell you is how much money has been appropriated by Congress, which is $1.2 trillion. The difference between these two figures is how much money is already in the pipeline waiting to be spent.”
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“We will likely spend another $300 billion to $500 billion on top of what is already in the pipeline,” Harrison said.
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The Office of Management and Budget estimates that the U.S. spends $10 billion annually for every 10,000 troops it has in Afghanistan.