Military feels pain of rising gas rates (Iraqis pay only about $1.36 a gallon)

[The Straight Story]

Military feels pain of rising gas rates
By Anne Flaherty, Associated Press April 2, 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Think you're being gouged by Big Oil? U.S. troops in Iraq are paying almost as much as Americans back home, despite burning fuel at staggering rates in a war to stabilize a country known for its oil reserves.

Military units pay an average of $3.23 a gallon for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, some $88 a day per service member in Iraq, according to an Associated Press review and interviews with defense officials. A penny or two increase in the price of fuel can add millions of dollars to U.S. costs.

Critics in Congress are fuming. The U.S., they say, is getting suckered as the cost of the war exceeds half a trillion dollars -- $10.3 billion a month, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Some lawmakers say oil-rich allies in the Middle East should be doing more to subsidize fuel costs because of the stake they have in a secure Iraq. Others point to Iraq's own burgeoning surplus as crude oil prices top $100 a barrel. Baghdad subsidies let Iraqis pay only about $1.36 a gallon.

The U.S. military, through its Defense Energy Support Center, buys fuel on the open market, paying from $1.99 a gallon to as much as $5.30 a gallon under contracts with private and government-owned oil companies. The center then sets a fixed rate for troops, currently $3.51 a gallon for diesel, $3.15 for gasoline, $3.04 for jet fuel and $13.61 for avgas, a high-octane fuel used mostly in unmanned aerial vehicles.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=39684&dcn=todaysnews

[rwheeler31]

1. Republcans count funny .

[sam sarrha]

2. about a $1 per gallon is added due to hedge funds and crony speculators, deregulating

[Contrary1]

3. That first paragraph is a real hoot...

"Think you're being gouged by Big Oil? U.S. troops in Iraq are paying almost as much as Americans back home, despite burning fuel at staggering rates in a war to stabilize a country known for its oil reserves...."

Since when did troops pay for their own fuel? Yes, Americans "back home" are being gouged, both here and there.