U.S. war costs up in 2007

Source: Xinhua | 01-24-2008 07:55

WASHINGTON, Jan. 23 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. government budget on Iraq and Afghanistan wars as well as other anti-terror operations increased significantly in 2007, said a congressional report released on Wednesday.

According to the report by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), war funding of Presidential George W. Bush's administration has remained at 93 billion U.S. dollars on average from 2003 through 2005 but increased to 120 billion dollars in 2006 and 171 billion dollars in 2007.

In a pending budget bill for the fiscal year 2008, Bush also asked for a war fund of about 193 billion dollars.

"It keeps going up, up and away," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said.

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, Congress has allocated about 691 billion dollars to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as some related activities including reconstruction, the report said.

Of the total, 440 billion dollars were spent on fighting in Iraq.

Currently, there are around 158,000 U.S. troops in Iraq and 27,000 in Afghanistan.

Without raising taxes to address the climbing price paid to anti-terror wars, the U.S. government was financially dragged by rising debts.

As CBO estimated, the interest payment the government has to pay on its debts this year would reach about 234 billion dollars.

Despite congressional Democrats' effort to change Bush administration's war policy by checking the fund, Congress is expected to pass another round of money for the war in May or June.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei