How Is War's Cost Calculated?

[ThomWV]

I have wondered about the estimates of the cost of the war in Iraq. How does a military at war cost so much more than a military at peace? I understand the cost of bullets but we pay soldiers if they fight or if they train, we run equipment all the time. Ships are at sea war or not and the Sky's are filled with our bombs night and day one way or another. I guess activated Reservists have a cost as do National Guard troops who would otherwise be back at home and on small part time weekend-warrior wages. But the cost of those troops certainly doesn't add up the the hundreds of billions and even if it did the cash would have been going to a segment of the economy who would be spending it as fast as it came in. That hasn't happened.

So just how is this cost calculated? Where is the money going? Who actually spends the cash and is it spent abroad or does the money go straight back to american manufacturers - who presumably hire at least some americans to build the tools of war. I dunno, how's it work?

[callady]

1. A few figures

Navy FA-18 fighter-bomber, the $25,600 cost of one of the frequently used
Joint Direct Attack Munition bombs, the top-of-the-line Tomahawk cruise
missiles.

<snip>

JDAM bomb: $25,600
-Tomahawk cruise missile: $600,000-$1 million
-MK-82 ``dumb'' bomb: $600-$1,400
-BLU-82 ``daisy-cutter'' bomb: $27,000
-GBU-37 bunker-busting bomb: $231,000
-Black Hawk helicopter of type lost in Pakistan: $11 million
-Pave Low helicopter of type lost in Afghanistan: $40 million

http://groups.google.com/group/flora.mai-not/browse_thread/thread/f6efc5ca33d01595/20199422bd8f4cc9?lnk=st&q=how+is+war+cost+calculated&rnum=2&hl=en#20199422bd8f4cc9

[frankly_fedup2]

2. I'm not so sure myself; however, I do know that one of the first things

they did was lose $9 billion of OUR money. Bad record keeping was their excuse.

I honestly feel they pick a number out of the top of their head and just hope it's close. Only aren't we a couple billion or a couple hundred billion off with the Iraqi war already?


Also, wasn't there something said about the oil in Iraq paying for the war?

Soldiers have told stories about that was the first thing they were told to protect as well as removing all of the gages that measures anything. That way no one knows how much oil id coming out of Iraq.

Also, they are building 14 military bases over there (but they have an exit plan . . . yeah right). They planned on keeping the military over there or they would not be building all of these bases that follow the new pipeline through Afghanistan to the Caspian Sea. All of this is just a coincidence, of course.

Sorry I don't have any answers but just a few facts that

[fed-up]

3. Do they even include the medical costs of injured military?

I hate to think what it costs to care for the 30-50K soldiers that have been injured or became sick while in Iraq. Not to mention any mental health care that they will need and which they definitely should recieve

What about disability pay???