The Costs Of War

Matthew Yglesias looks at the funding issues of the Iraq war-

This article on revised Congressional Research Service estimates of spending on the Iraq War is pretty dull until the end, but then it starts to get interesting. The report apparently contains such phrases as "These factors, however, are not enough to explain a 50-percent increase of over $20 billion in operating costs" and "These reasons are not sufficient, however, to explain the level of increases." Relatedly, the Post reports that "Of the total war spending, the CRS analysis found $4 billion that could not be tracked. It did identify $2.5 billion diverted from other spending authorizations in 2001 and 2002 to prepare for the invasion." I'm fairly sure you're not allowed to "divert" money from other spending authorizations, and you're certainly not supposed to lose $4 billion in untrackable spending. Nor does it sound entirely appropriate for the Pentagon to be running its operation in such a way that the CRS can't discern the causes of 50 percent spending increases. All the sort of thing a real congress would hold some hearings on, and, once again, I won't be holding my breath.

Congress... Hold hearings? Defend their own authority? Unheard of!

On a related note, Jonathan Schwartz explores a possibly impeachable offense committed by President Bush in the way he has been appropriating and controlling the spending in Iraq. Not that it matters; Congress won't investigate or ask questions. Bush is the War President, xenith of his powers, no statute can hold him down, yada yada. We know the drill.

Meanwhile, April has been the deadliest month in Iraq so far this year.

Such is the cost when you're living with war.

[PS- The Iraq war... keeping terrorism growing strong since 2003!]

[PPS- This weekend is the third anniversary of 'Mission Accomplished'. How's that working out, George?]