Iraq's cost: Off by a factor of 10

As Paul Krugman points out today, the administration forecast a war cost of $50-60 billion in 2002. Now military commanders are saying we won't be able to leave until 2016.

As Krugman notes, the Congressional Budget Office forecasts a vastly higher cost if US forces stay in Iraq that long (PDF). CBO estimates we have already spent $290 billion on Iraq. If the number of troops in Iraq shrinks from "170,000 in 2007 to 40,000 by the end of calendar year 2010" and stays at that level through 2016, it estimates an additional cost of $368 billion from 2007-2016.

The total? $658 billion. So the administration was only off ... by a factor of 10.

Comments

[Kit Burns]

So maybe the Republicans would like to make this a talking point for the upcoming elections?

And the $50-$60 billion was the "updated" number after the invasion. Before the invasion, IIRC, the estimate was "no more than $2 billion."