Afghan refugee girls run at a refugee camp on World Refugee Day in Kabul, Afghanistan Monday, June 20, 2011. More than 4.6 million Afghan refugees returned home since 2002 with assistance from the Government, the United Nations and partners. On World Refugee Day, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) called for accelerated peace initiatives so that all refugees can return, a released statement of United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said. Credit: AP

By Tony Capaccio
21 June 2011 The Pentagon says it has spent at least $1 trillion prosecuting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and defending the U.S. homeland, according to newly released Defense Department figures through April 30. Spending growth on Afghanistan operations helped push the Pentagon over the $1 trillion mark, increasing to $6.2 billion per month in April from $4.3 billion in the first two months of fiscal 2011 that began Oct. 1. Afghanistan spending in fiscal 2009, as Barack Obama became president, averaged $3.9 billion per month. The spending total includes war-related operations, transportation, special combat pay and benefits, food, medical services, maintenance, replacement of lost combat equipment and building the Iraq and Afghanistan security forces. Still, the $1 trillion does not include about $95 billion in funds appropriated but still to put on contract or paid to personnel to cover operational costs over the rest of the fiscal year as well as procurement of replacement weapons systems and construction that take years to spend, said Amy Belasco, a Congressional Research Service budget expert. It also does not include about $100 billion the Pentagon excludes as not ‘war-related,’ such as intelligence, Belasco said. Nor does it include long-term costs for Veterans Administration care, disability costs for wounded Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, or all reconstruction funding for the war- damaged countries. “This figure represents how much we have actually spent on the wars up to this point,” said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert with the non-partisan Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. “What it doesn’t tell you is how much money has been appropriated by Congress, which is $1.2 trillion. The difference between these two figures is how much money is already in the pipeline waiting to be spent.” […] “It draws a natural comparison to the other big budget numbers we keep hearing: a $1.6 trillion deficit this year, a proposal to raise the debt limit by $2 trillion. The cost of the wars is a hot topic given the pressure on the president to bring down troops in Afghanistan more quickly,” Harrison said. […]

Pentagon Crosses $1 Trillion Threshold in War on Terror Spending