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Counting the cost of war
Giant bombers run up enormous fuel bills
By BBC News Online's Tom Housden
Although precise figures have not yet been made
available, the war in Afghanistan will almost
certainly cost the United States billions of dollars.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and
Budgetary Assessments, (CSBA) a non-profit making
think-tank, estimates the cost of the campaign so far
as between $1bn and $2.2bn.
It estimates that during the first 3 weeks of the
campaign alone, the US used 6,000 bombs and missiles
over the course of 1,600 air strike sorties at an
overall cost of between $400m and $800m.
We need to face the reality that the attacks of
September 11, may be a dim preview of what is to come
Donald Rumsfeld, US defence secretary
The centre used a number of methods to arrive at its
figures, including drawing parallels with Operation
Desert Storm against Iraq in 1991, in which US
aircraft flew about 35,000 combat missions at a cost
of $15bn.
In the early part of the war in Afghanistan, costs
were fairly limited as the US operation mainly
involved small numbers of special forces, and
selective targeted air sorties from sea-based fighter
planes.
But expenditure has increased during the later half of
the war with the deployment of a contingent of marines
near Kandahar, and round the clock bombing raids.
Analyst Steven Kosiak from the CSBA told BBC News
Online that although the figures are considerable, the
Defence Department still has the financial capacity to
cope with, and even widen the scope of the war against
terror.
Military mandate
In the long term, Washington may have to consider
finding ways to make further increases in its
already-rising military expenditure.
Fortunately for President Bush the appetite for
military spending currently appears anything but
diminished on both political and public levels.
Opinion polls show Mr Bush to be riding high on a tide
of public support generated both by his handling of
the war and the aftermath of 11 September.
The president is riding high in the polls
A week before the devastating attacks in New York and
Washington, his approval rating was languishing at
51%, according to a poll conducted by the Gallup
organisation.
It currently stands at 86%. Politically, Mr Bush has
even received praise from elements of the Democratic
Party.
This climate has allowed the president's $343.3bn
defence bill - one of his central campaign pledges -
to easily pass through Congress.
The bill which covers the financial year running from
1 October, allows for an increase of $33bn over last
year's spending levels, a figure which includes $8.3bn
towards the so-called 'Son of Star Wars' missile
defence system.
The budget also contains increased intelligence
spending, and more resources for the newly created
Office of Homeland Defence.
11 September could just be the start, warns Donald
Rumsfeld
On a wider scale, Washington has also made clear to
its Nato allies that it expects them to also bolster
their military capacities with greater spending.
Addressing Nato defence ministers, US Defence
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: "We need to face the
reality that the attacks of 11 September, horrific as
they were, may in fact be a dim preview of what is to
come".
He added that the West must "prepare today to defend
our people from adversaries with weapons of increasing
power and range".
No 'blank cheque'
But despite an apparent mandate for bigger budgets,
Steven Kosiak said that Mr Bush does not have what
amounts to a blank cheque
Mr Bush wants to restructure the US army
"Its hard to tell what will happen precisely... there
are other factors The economy is not doing to well,
the surplus has disappeared and there's the
[projected] tax cut," he told the BBC.
Analysts suggest a further factor in Washington's
budget plans will be the cost of reconstructing
Afghanistan's damaged infrastructure.
The World Bank has estimated this to be $10bn for the
first five years alone.
Washington would usually donate one third of this
amount, but given the cost of the war itself, some
quarters of the Bush administration have questioned
past 'nation-building' contributions to countries such
as Bosnia and Cambodia should be matched.
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