“With this act of Congress, no enemy or friend can doubt that America has the resources and the will to see this war through to victory,” said President Bush as he signed the Nov. 6 emergency $87.5 billion spending package for Iraq, according to CNN. Yet many people are not even sure how much the war has cost thus far.
“I quit keeping track months ago and I can’t even remember that number, said sophomore James Thorne about how much he thought it cost. “I’m sorry, but any answer I give you will be pathetically uninformed” .
There are reasons for the confusion. Estimates vary depending on what figures you choose to take into account. I’ve heard anything from $53.3 to $85.5 billion. What figures you hear depends almost entirely on where people get their numbers. Here are just a few of the possible numbers, taken from press releases through the Congressional Budget Office, that you may want to consider when coming up with your own estimate of how much Iraq is really costing.
Cost of war until April 16, 2003 – $24 – $28 billion.
On April 16, the Department of Defense Comptroller Dov Zakheim told the press that the Pentagon spent between $10-12 billion in military operations, plus $9 billion in the first three and a half weeks. He added an estimated $5-$7 billion for returning the troops and equipment to base, resulting in the $24 to $28 billion estimate.
+ $3.9 billion a month x 7 months = $27.3 billion
On July 9, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the military occupation of Iraq cost at least $3.9 billion each month. Some people round this up to $4 billion. The seven months start on April 16, when Bush requested that the U.N. lift economic sanctions.
+ $2 billion
On July 30, Director of the Office of Management and Budget Joshua Bolten reported to the Senate Foreign Relations that the U.S. had spent $2 billion on the reconstructing Iraq Committee. However, he did not include estimates for the coming months, so this figure has risen since then. Some people inflate this figure, while others discount it entirely until a further estimate comes out.
+ $8 billion
The Fiscal 2003 Supplemental Appropriations Bill (H.R. 1559) allocated $8 billion to encourage foreign support for the war and rebuild Iraq, particularly Iraq’s oil fields. This figure may be high, since it was a requisition, not actual money spent.
+ Interest:
The U.S. is going into debt in order to afford its operations in Iraq, debt it must pay off with interest. Therefore anti-war advocates, like the anti-war website of costofwar.com, argue that the cost estimates should include interest payments. (Costofwar.com provided many of the figures above.) The US sold enough 10-year treasury notes to support the initial invasion, but the treasury notes carry a 4% interest hike every year, raising the costs far beyond the estimated figures. For example, $3.9 billion a month becomes more like $5.5 billion a month if you apply a 4% interest rate for ten years. Therefore, estimates vary widely depending on what interest rate is applied and for how long.
$87.5 billion
This was money Bush requested and was granted by Congress for future activity in both Afghanistan and Iraq. Since it is an appropriation, and not spent yet, most estimates in how much the war has cost thus far do not include it.
So how much have we spent, or more importantly, how much will we spend in the future? On the July 13 edition of ABC’s “This Week,” Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld gave one reason the White House has not wanted to say more.
“Well, if we knew, we would say. We have avoided saying “x” number of years or “x” billions of dollars, because it would be deceptive. I went back and checked and said, “What did people say in the administration on Kosovo? What did they say on Bosnia? What did they say about Panama?” And they were all wrong – they were all wrong – they were wrong by a factor of one, two, three times, and I looked at that, and I said if it’s not knowable, isn’t it a bigger disservice to the American people to guess than it is to say the truth – you don’t know?”

Do you still have questions about the conflict in Iraq? How many civilians have died? How much evidence is there of weapons of mass destruction? Read again next week in part two of Iraq Facts.