CBO: Troop surge in Afghanistan to cost $36 billion over the next three years

The Congressional Budget Office on Friday estimated that President Barack Obama’s plan to send an additional 30,000 troops to Afghanistan likely will cost about $36 billion between 2010 and 2013.

CBO estimated the costs of increasing the number of troops in and around Afghanistan from about 70,000 at the end of fiscal year 2009 to about 100,000 by July 2010, averaging 85,000 personnel for fiscal year 2010, according to CBO director Douglas Elemendorf.

“The estimate assumes that the number of troops would begin to decline in August 2011 and that the additional personnel would be fully withdrawn by January 2012,” Elmendorf wrote in a letter to House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) and the committee’s top Republican, Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.).

The Pentagon is also expected to soon request an additional $33 billion on top of the $130 billion in war funds Congress already approved for fiscal 2010.

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