Gates projects Pentagon needs $70 bln more for wars

[Barrett808]

Source: Reuters

Gates projects Pentagon needs $70 bln more for wars 06 Jan 2009 20:59:52 GMT
By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON, Jan 6 (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates estimates the Pentagon will need about $70 billion more to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this year, on top of the $65.9 billion already approved by Congress.

If Congress supports the amount Gates estimates is needed, total spending on the wars will hit $927.7 billion since 2001.

In a three-page letter dated Dec. 31, Gates told House of Representatives Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha that the military needed $69.7 billion in extra funds in fiscal 2009 to fund operations, replace equipment lost or worn out in the wars and replenish supplies.

That would bring the total war spending for fiscal 2009, which began on Oct. 1, to about $136 billion, the lowest in two years.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N06442401.htm

[No DUplicitous DUpe]

1. No! No more money for wars and bases!

Enough!

[MichiganVote]

2. Tell em' to call AIG

[unkachuck]

3. shit yah....

....at least 70 billion dollars more, stop wimping around....take it out of the TARP money, put it on the tab....we wouldn't want our economy not to be based on war, would we?

....what else are we proficient at?....we're damn good killers....

[David Dunham]

4. We need to get OUT of both Iraq and Afghan ASAP!!!!

[Sultana]

5. Hell No!

[unhappycamper]

6. If you roll that into the 2009 military budget, you've now spent $1 trillon dollars

this year. (Compared to $302 billion it was on 1.20.2000.)

[bdamomma]

7. No more money for killing.