Congressional Research Service report - War Costs Top $500 billion and Could Reach $808 billion by 2016

According to a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report released September 22, when the Fiscal Year 2007 Defense Appropriations Bill is adopted this week, total war appropriations for Iraq, Afghanistan and the Global War on Terrorism will reach around $507 billion.

The report estimates that when all funding is completed for fiscal year 2007, the total costs of the wars will reach $549 billion.

Monthly costs for the war in Iraq are about $6.4 billion while the war in Afghanistan costs $1.3 billion a month.

The Pentagon’s annual war funding rose from about $73 billion in fiscal year 2004 to $102 billion in fiscal year 2005, $118 billion in fiscal year 2006, but is projected by the Office of Management and Budget to drop to $110 billion in fiscal year 2007.

The Congressional Budget Offices also indicated, however, that there could be an additional $371 billion in war costs between fiscal years 2007 and 2016. Adding these additional funds, total funding for the wars could reach $808 billion by 2016.

The full report is entitled: “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11”, Updated September 22, 2006, and is available at the Federation of American Scientist's website.

N.B. This is the total of money appropriated as opposed to what has already been spent.