Agence France-Presse,
WASHINGTON (AFP): A decades-long US presence in Iraq would cost around 25 billion dollars a year in combat conditions, and up to 10 billion even in more peaceful times, a new congressional report said.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) tallied up the price-tag for a long stay in Iraq after the White House said in May the half-century US military presence in South Korea could be a model for future Iraq deployments.
Upfront costs for a combat force of 55,000 US troops, modelled on the current US mission in Iraq, would mean a one-time payment of “four to eight billion dollars and annual costs of approximately 25 billion dollars.”
Even a US force of the same size in a less exposed non-combat role, would entail up-front costs of eight billion dollars and an annual outlay of up to 10 billion dollars, the report said.
The report by the CBO, which provides non-partisan budget and economic costings for Congress, was commissioned by Democratic Senator Kent Conrad.
“The American people deserve to know that they are going to be handed a multi-trillion dollar bill from this president to cover the cost of his misguided policy in Iraq,” Conrad said in a statement.
“The Bush administration has been trying to hide the cost of this war every step of the way.”
Bush said in a live televised address to Americans last week after testimony to Congress by war commander General David Petraeus, that Iraq required US political, economic, and security engagement “beyond my presidency.”
US troop levels in Iraq currently number around 168,000, though Bush said last week a gradual drawdown will start within weeks, which will take levels down to around 130,000 by the middle of next year.
According to a report by the non-partisan Congressional Research Service in July, the United States has already shelled out well over half a trillion dollars on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and running costs have hit 12 billion dollars a month.
The United States has stationed tens of thousands of soldiers in South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War, and currently has 29,500 troops helping the 680,000-strong South Korean military face down North Korea's 1.1-million-strong forces.
