Economy factors into Afghanistan surge - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Economy factors into Afghanistan surge

Consider this: The U.S. military is annually consuming an average of 8,000 gallons of fuel for each service member deployed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and the average cost of one gallon of delivered fuel ranges from $25 to $45, according to a recent study.

More than half of that is spent on security to protect the fuel convoy, said Todd Harrison, a budget analyst for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.

Now, consider $30 billion — the estimated first-year cost of President Barack Obama’s new troop surge in Afghanistan, about $1 million for each additional U.S. service member being deployed.

Add that and future expenditures to the $950 billion or so that the U.S. has spent on its fights in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past eight years — against the backdrop of a still-flailing national economy — and it becomes clear why the cost of this new escalation was a factor in the just-ended three months of top-level White House meetings on how to move forward in the war launched following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

In his speech to the nation Dec. 1, Obama acknowledged the concern, saying he must “weigh all of the challenges” before the nation.

“In the wake of an economic crisis, too many of our friends and neighbors are out of work and struggle to pay the bills, and too many Americans are worried about the future facing our children,” he said. “Meanwhile, competition within the global economy has grown more fierce. So we simply cannot afford to ignore the price of these wars.”

The nation’s prosperity, Obama said, “provides a foundation for our power.” But in yet another economic stressor closely related to war spending, the U.S. spends $200 billion annually just to service the interest on its foreign debt. That figure could rise to $700 billion by 2018, according to Harrison.

In the grand scheme of things, that’s critical. “Our budget deficit at some point becomes a security issue, because we have to finance our debt by borrowing from other countries,” Harrison said.

But if recent history is any guide, the cost of the surge likely will be covered by a supplemental appropriation on top of the $68 billion the administration originally sought for Afghanistan for the current fiscal year.

At least some of the money could come out of other Pentagon programs. As a rule, it’s easier to cut funding for weapons than for personnel, Harrison said. Cutting personnel spending is “difficult … because it affects peoples’ paychecks, and Congress is very sensitive to cutting that type of spending,” he said.

A Pentagon official said the Defense Department is working with the Office of Management and Budget to map out the best way to come up with the money to cover the Afghanistan surge and when to make the request.

The estimated cost for fiscal 2011 will be included in the annual defense budget request, due in February, he said.