A lot has been printed about how much the war is costing us. The question I have is this: Do these figures include the money that would be spent on paying the troops anyway??? What I mean by this is this: If the troops are getting paid anyway, and there salary is being included in the total we are paying for the war, doesn't this misrepresent the actual figure??? We (as a nation) would be spending that amount anyway, right???

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

I know that the war is funded by supplemental allocation. The Pentagon has its own budget. But, I don't know that salaries are included in the supplementals or not.

I don't have an answer, however you have to take into consideration the extra hazardous duty pay they receive (could be called something else by now). Trying to say there is more to it than their regular base pay. And no, whatever they are being paid, it's not enough.

dl

Here's an excellent article on the subject which says in part:

" ... Last year, for instance, the president submitted a defense budget request of $481 billion for fiscal year 2008. Operations in Iraq and Afghanistan were covered in an entirely separate $142 billion emergency supplemental request. In October the administration increased that request to $196 billion, leaving Congress to face a dilemma that has become all too familiar since 2001: quickly approve billions of dollars in supplemental war funding without knowing where the money is going or face browbeating accusations of not supporting the troops. In the end, after little discussion, Congress passed its $70 billion down payment. ..."

Reason Magazine - The Trillion-Dollar War

I expect that troop salary and benefits are included in the defense budget figure although hazardous duty pay may not be but in the big picture that cost would be minimal.

Reason Magazine? What sort of a publication is that?

Why not read the article and come to your own conclusion?

BTW, if you can find figures which disagree with the article's analysis please post.

I just thought you might know offhand whether they are fair and balanced or left- or right- leaning.

Reason is a magazine that deals with facts. So, that would make it a left leaning magazine.

Alrighty then. If you say so.

I'm tempted to say, "You're funny" but I'll refrain.

A lot of stuff was added onto the War Supplemental Funding Bill (H.R. 2642) that passed this year that has nothing to do with the war.

WARS $162 billion

for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. That will pay for the wars six months into the next president's term.
UNEMPLOYMENT $12.5 billion

will provide an extra 13 weeks of unemployment benefits to workers who have exhausted their eligibility.
VETERANS $62.8 billion

provides free state college tuition to Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, like recent S.F. State graduate Aaron Augustis.
DISASTERS $2.6 billion

in aid for Midwest areas hit by floods and tornadoes.
LEVEES $5.8 billion

to repair levees in hurricane-damaged New Orleans.
International $10.1 billion

for the food crisis, to help Iraqi refugees and fight Mexican drug trafficking.

Source: House Appropriations Committee

“They have it worked out politically that it is very hard to vote against the domestic spending because you have to vote against flood victims and some veteran benefits. At the same time, the people who are for the war, unfortunately it’s the majority of Republicans and Democrats, will vote for the military spending. The Republicans are happy, because they’re getting all of the military money and the Democrats are happy because they’re getting this additional spending on domestic funding. So, it’s just the way Washington works. Instead of doing the right things, they get together and everyone gets what they want. Totally irresponsible, because they just don’t have the money there. The taxes won’t go up fortunately, but they will borrow more money and they are going to send the bills to the Federal Resave. The Federal Reserve is just going to print this money and the process goes on until we have a financial crisis and a dollar crisis. Unfortunately, I am afraid that time is approaching” - Ron Paul, Juneteenth 2008, Campaign for Liberty Interview.

So, it's really difficult to know exactly WHAT the extra costs of the war are???

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

The President originally asked for an additional $142 billion over and above the $481 billion military budget which leads me to believe that money was mainly needed to "fund" the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. As Forestlayne said, extras were added by both sides of the aisle -- partly cause they could and partly because it was a way to get something funded that the CIC had threatened to veto but wouldn't when it was attached to a supplemental war funding bill.