Robert Gates, the secretary of defense for both the outgoing Bush and incoming Obama administrations, is urging Congress to allocate at least $69.7 billion more to the ongoing U.S. occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan this fiscal year.
Congress has already approved nearly $66 billion in occupation funds for FY 2009. The latest estimate does not include additional costs associated with increased troop levels in Afghanistan, a proposal endorsed by Obama.
Gates’s request includes $600 million to purchase four more Lockheed Martin Corp. F-22 Raptor fighter jets, in addition to the 183 F-22s already contracted by the Air Force. Another $7.5 billion would replace Boeing’s AH-64 Apache and CH-47 Chinook helicopters and other transport equipment.
In FY 2008 alone, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost taxpayers an average of $13.6 billion per month, or almost $500 million per day. Since Sept. 11, 2001, Congress has approved $864 billion for the criminal “war on terror,” according to the Congressional Research Service.
