War Costs Rising

Chicago Tribune via ajc.com: "The White House said Thursday it will ask Congress to approve $70 billion in additional spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2006, bringing the overall costs of those conflicts to nearly $400 billion by the end of the budget year in September.

In addition, President Bush will request a place-holding $50 billion for the wars in the new 2007 spending plan that the White House will unveil Monday.

But, like the $50 billion that the White House initially included for war in this year's budget, the Office of Management and Budget maintains that the real cost for 2007, dictated by 'events on the ground,' is impossible to forecast.

...The cost of the war in Iraq is clearly surpassing anyone's early estimates, including those of the administration. Bush aide Lawrence Lindsey suggested in 2002 that a war in Iraq could cost as much as $200 billion, an estimate considered so high --- and so impolitic --- it helped lead to his ouster from the administration."