U.S. spends $3.6 billion a month in Afghanistan

The United States spends about $3.6 billion a month in Afghanistan, according to data from the Congressional Research Service.

The average cost per month is calculated per 51,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, but that number likely will increase with the 68,000 troops the Obama administration is planning on having in that country.

And it could double if President Barack Obama backs a request from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the commander in Afghanistan, to send as many as 40,000 more troops to the country.

The cost of sending one U.S. soldier into Afghanistan for one year is $1 million versus an estimated $12,000 for an Afghan soldier, according to Stephen Daggett, a specialist with the Congressional Research Service.

Those numbers fall within the calculations that the Obama administration has been using. The Obama administration is calculating $1 billion per 1,000 troops deployed to Afghanistan.

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