Now if Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and his buddies could just tell us where Osama is….

Post from: All in a day's work...

9/11 Plotters Want To Plead Guilty

OpenCRS lays out the numbers for us:

Congress has approved a total of about $864 billion for military operations, base security, reconstruction, foreign aid, embassy costs, and veterans’ health care for the three operations initiated since the 9/11 attacks:

1. Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) – Afghanistan and other counter terror operations,
2. Operation Noble Eagle (ONE) – providing enhanced security at military bases, and
3. Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF).

Of that total, CRS estimates that:

• Iraq will receive about $657 billion (76%),
• OEF about $173 billion (20%), and
• enhanced base security about $28 billion (3%),
• with about $5 billion that CRS cannot allocate (1%).

About 94% of the funds are for DOD, 6% for foreign aid programs and embassy operations, and less than 1% for medical care for veterans. As of July 2008, DOD’s monthly obligations for contracts and pay averaged about $12.3 billion, including $9.9 billion for Iraq, and $2.4 billion for Afghanistan.

In an August 2008 update, the Congressional Budget Office projected that additional war costs could range from:

• $440 billion for the next ten years, if troop levels fell to 30,000 by 2010, or
• $865 billion, if troop levels fell to 75,000 by about 2013.

Under these CBO projections, funding for Iraq, Afghanistan and the GWOT could total about $1.3 trillion or about $1.7 trillion for FY2001-FY2018.

So, you can compare wars and their costs against GDP if you want to, but I don’t see what that even matters! Who cares? The point is, Osama bin Laden is laughing in his cave, grave, or wherever the hell he is, because he’s accomplished his task – bringing our financial system to it’s knees – and that’s exactly where we’re at right now.

Post from: All in a day's work...

Iraq War Soldiers or Corrupt Corporations – Who Deserves Your Money?