Breaking down Bush’s request for Afghanistan and Pakistan
This week the administration released its characteristically opaque
budget requests. Here’s what the fine print says...
Afghanistan:
- FY 2008: ~$1 billion (€770 million) + $370 million “for emergency assistance programs that will complement U.S. military objectives”
- FY 2007: $968 million (€748.9 million)
Pakistan:
- FY 2008: $485* million (€607.4 million) + $300 million (€232 million) in military aid tucked into the aid budget.
- FY 2007: $499 million (€386 million)
See Department of State and Other International Programs and The Associated Press, Monday, February 5, 2007)
The Defense Department announced that it is requesting $481.4 billion for Fiscal Year 2008
along with a $141.7 billion supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan.
In addition, the supplemental includes a $50 billion “allowance” for 2009. The
request also includes a $100 billion supplement to last year’s supplemental (!)
for the rest of Fiscal Year 2007 (which ends on September 30). As Fred Kaplan,
a Slate budget analyst reveals, “a squint through the fine print of the White
House and Pentagon budget documents reveals that the true request for new
military-spending authority comes to $739
billion.”
As far as Afghanistan is concerned, the real increase here is for “Training and equipping Afghan
Security Forces” which over the next two years
will average twice what is being spent today. Here’s the breakdown for new
spending:
- FY 2008 $2.7 billion
- FY 2007: $5.9 billion in addition to the $1.5 billion already enacted
- FY 2006: $2.2 billion
See the proposed budget for the Department of
Defense.
We’ll be delving deeper in the next days and weeks…
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