$400 per gallon gas to drive debate over cost of war in Afghanistan

[Lone_Star_Dem]

The Pentagon pays an average of $400 to put a gallon of fuel into a combat vehicle or aircraft in Afghanistan.

The statistic is likely to play into the escalating debate in Congress over the cost of a war that entered its ninth year last week.

Pentagon officials have told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee a gallon of fuel costs the military about $400 by the time it arrives in the remote locations in Afghanistan where U.S. troops operate.

“It is a number that we were not aware of and it is worrisome,” Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Defense panel, said in an interview with The Hill. “When I heard that figure from the Defense Department, we started looking into it.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/63407-400gal... -

[Bigmack]

1. Maybe we can't afford an Empire! ...

Millions of workers unemployed, the highest foreclosure rate in history, US industry gone, the middle class gutted... and these fools - all of them, Dem & Repub - think we can afford $400 bucks for a gallon of gas to be pissed away in a vain attempt to control the uncontrollable.

Is Obama gonna make himself into LBJ?

[AllentownJake]

2. More like Gorbachev

[Bigmack]

17. I chose LBJ for a reason..

"I knew from the start if I left the woman I really loved - The Great Society - in order to get involved with that bitch of a war on the other
side of the world, then I would lose everything at home. All my programs ... All my hopes ... All my dreams."

If Obama has any hopes of doing anything to bring this country out of the nosedive it's in, he needs to avoid "that bitch of a war".

[AllentownJake]

19. I picked Gorby for a reason too

Nice guy, tried to save a broken system, ended up overseeing the collapse of a superpower

[Bigmack]

21. Would you settle for a little of both? A double disaster? nt

[Initech]

3. So is this how Exxon made all those obscene profits the last couple of years?

[Lone_Star_Dem]

20. No, it's transportation costs which drive the price up

From the article:

The Commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Conway, told a Navy Energy Forum this week that transporting fuel miles into Afghanistan and Iraq along risky and dangerous routes can raise the cost of a $1.04 gallon up to $400, according to Aviation Week which covered the forum.

[Bjorn Against]

4. So let me get this straight...

We can afford $400 a gallon gas, but we can't afford health care?

We hear our politicians pledge not to vote for any health care bill if it will raise the deficit, it is time we demand they pledge not to vote for war funding if it will raise the deficit. I am sick of money being thrown to military contractors without question while people at home are not even able to see a doctor when they get sick.

[hfojvt]

14. it's kinda worse than that

because we are not really paying $400 a gallon. That is just an accountant's measure of the cost. How that happens is that we burn 100 gallons of fuel to get a gallon to where it is needed in Afghanistan. Perhaps there is some labor cost in there as well, but I am sure lots of it is in precious non-renewable resources that are going up in smoke just so we can pursue this war.

[Incitatus]

5. $1,000 in some places

And moving fuel by convoy or even airlift is expensive, according to the Army news release from July 16, which quoted Geiss. In some places, Geiss said, analysts have estimated the fully burdened cost of fuel might even be as high as $1,000 per gallon.

[TexasObserver]

6. Because War Profiteering never takes a day off.

[slay]

7. You nailed it

sad and true

[TexasObserver]

9. But we can't afford health care.

[slay]

11. It's rediculous the double standard that seems to apply to what republicans get and what democrats

get. Republicans want wars - want ACORN funding cut off - DONE! We want health care and gay rights.. well maybe.. one day.. hrmmm.... Something is very wrong here..

*edited to add: Repubs want tax cuts for the rich - Done! And We... lose funding for crucial social programs.. huh?

[TexasObserver]

12. No one says "how we gonna pay for this" with war.

[slay]

13. Or even - is this war really needed - evidently

sickening

[redqueen]

25. And who in Congress has written a bill to outlaw profiteering for this war?

The silence says something.

[TexasObserver]

27. I agree. Obama, Reid and Pelosi have provided no leadership on this.

They behave as if they have a boss that won't let them.

Maybe they do.

[redqueen]

28. I was wrong... Leahy introduced one.

The War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007. (S.119 in the 110th congress)

It got 21 co-sponsors... died in committee.

[TexasObserver]

30. Frankly, ever since Daschle and Leahy caved on the Patriot Act ...

... after the anthrax targeting of them and the sealing off of congress allegedly to check for anthrax, it's seemed our top Democratic officials have always stopped short of holding the military industrial complex responsible for anything.

Pelosi behaves like someone who has been personally threatened not to go there. There is simply no oversight by congress for the chronic abuses of defense contractors. Those contractors own congress.

ACORN can be held accountable, but not Haliburton.

Fannie Mae can be attacked, but not Blackwater.

Defense contractors bribe congress with all manner of goodies, and congress whores itself for them.

[jwirr]

8. Is that like the six hundred dollar hammer?

[TorchTheWitch]

16. Sold a Hammer to the Pentagon - Tom Paxton

Sold a hammer to the Pentagon
To the Bing Bang to the Pentagon
And I’m living in Florida for they made me a millionare
They gave me 700 for every silly little hammer
For I sold them to the Pentagon and they made me a millionare

So you sell them nails
To the Bing Bang to the Pentagon
Yes you sell them nails and they’ll make you a millionare
Sold a coffee pot to the Pentagon
To the Hee Haw to the Pentagon
And I’m living on a golf course for they made me a millionare
They gave me 5,000 for every silly little coffee pot
For I sold them to the Pentagon and they made me a millionare

So you sell them coffee
To the Hee Haw to the Pentagon
Yes you sell them nails and they’ll make you a millionare
Sold a toilet seat to the Pentagon
To the Yahoo at the Pentagon
And I’m living in a condo for they made me a millionare
They gave me 600 for every folding little toilet seat
For I sold them to the Pentagon and they made me a millionare

So you know what you can sell
To the Yahoo at the Pentagon
Yes you know what you can sell and they’ll make you a millionare

[Hutzpa]

10. Why fight a fucking war then?

$400, WHAT??? unbelievable....

[chollybocker]

15. I hate it when I gas-up my combat vehicle or aircraft....

...and the amount on the pump rolls over to $17,000,000.01, and I have to try to dig a sticky penny out of the cup holder. Hate that! And war, too!

[Sebastian Doyle]

18. Just wait until NuttyYahoo gets his war in Iran

We'll all be paying $400 for a fucking gallon of gas then

[slay]

22. K&R

[Orsino]

23. This is the sound of deficits not mattering. n/t

[Mendocino]

24. A F-15 fighter jet on afterburners uses

4 gallons of fuel per second, an astonishing 14400 gallons per hour.

[Stevenmarc]

26. Someone better be cleaning the windshield when I gas up at $400 a gallon

[yodoobo]

29. This was explained by Jeff Goldblooms dad.

President Whitmore: I don't understand,where does all this come from? How do you get funding for something like this?

Julius Levinson: You don't actually think they spend $20,000.00 on a hammer, $30,000.00 on a toilet seat do you?