Monday, January 04, 2010

The Good War Doesn't Come Cheap

Expect more casualties this year in Afghanistan, as former General McCaffrey states:

“What I want to do is signal that this thing is going to be $5 billion to $10 billion a month and 300 to 500 killed and wounded a month by next summer. That’s what we probably should expect. And that’s light casualties,” said McCaffrey, who is also president of his own consulting firm in Arlington, Va., and has conducted numerous trips to the war zones to assess the political and military challenges at hand.

He's right. Although it has nothing to do with our losing the war, or any such rot. If you assume a 2010 casualty rate the same as 2009's rate and assume an average of 83,000 US troops in the country this year as we ramp up to 100,000, we could suffer 573 dead in Afghanistan this year.

And the price will be high since the cost of supporting one soldier in Afghanistan is about 2.5 times the cost of a soldier in Iraq.

The Left is finally getting their wish of focusing on the "good war." Will they be up to making a gut check to continue supporting the "good" war with this price tag?

The question was rhetorical, of course.