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...

First is the requested State Department package. Here Afghanistan would receive a modest increase from last year (the real bump in proposed spending is on troop training, which falls under the Pentagon budget.) Nevertheless, much of this aid package is allocated for military purposes both for Afghanistan (for “for emergency assistance programs that will complement U.S. military objectives”). Pakistan will also receive a substantial bump in its aid allocation.

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)

Pentagon package:

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…