Who knows?
Posted by Joshua Claybourn on 24 September 2005 | 4 responses
In the wake of a lengthy and ongoing campaign in Iraq, many will be asking, “How much did we spend?” Unfortunately no one seems to know.
The Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the fight against terrorism, limiting Congress’s ability to oversee spending, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released yesterday.
The Defense Department has reported spending $191 billion to fight terrorism from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks through May 2005, with the annual sum ballooning from $11 billion in fiscal 2002 to a projected $71 billion in fiscal 2005. But the GAO investigation found many inaccuracies totaling billions of dollars.
“Neither DOD nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details of how appropriated funds are being spent,” the report to Congress stated.
The Washington Post article is here, and the GAO report is here (pdf).
At last report, there was well over $10 billion that had been spent in Iraq that basically no one in this country had a clue where it had gone.
Just this week, a report came out suggesting that the Iraqi Defense Department had managed to completley lose track of about $1-2 billion that the U .S. had given that nation to procure supplies for its defense industry. The supplies were never delivered.
But don’t you feel assured by all of the Administration statements that were made about how this war would never cost us as much as $200 billion? Wasn’t it great how they denigrated anyone who ever said that it would?
Jim S, just remember, the people who voted for Bush determined long ago that the Bush Administration was the only group of peopel who could protect this country.
Therefore, they could have a nearly infinite amount of funds disappear into the hands of contractors in Iraq, and it wouldn’t cost em more than a handfull of votes. And thus, they had no reason to be accountable…the Republican Congress wasn’t going to hold the Republican President accountable, and the end result is the American Taxpayer being swindled out of tens of billions of dollars.
Let me just throw a few points to the people who seem so eager to sling arrows.
1. The money was divided up to fund tens or hundreds of thousands of projects with in
the space of less than two and a half years, covering programs being run by the US gov’t, Iraqi gov’t, local contractors, and foreign contractors. Would anyone like to volunteer to keep a track of that nightmare?
2. Speed and thoroughness are two qualities that are naturally in tension with one another. The idea that gouging, graft, and exploding budgets wouldn’t occur in an undertaking taking this big and occuring in this short of a time is absurd.
3. Didn’t anyone ever expect anything different from the federal gov’t, under any administration, in any era? Going right back to the Founders, you’ll get an ear-full about the issues of government waste. The accusation that Bush is any more responsible for federal bloat than any other president is, again, absurd.
While it may be disappointing, it is not abnormal and it is not unexpected. And right now I see a national government voted in by a majority of Iraqis, deliberating and getting ready to vote on a constitution. So, while we will certainly bring our attention back later to fiscal responsibility (which I have some very strong opinions on), let us not miss the forest for the trees.