WASHINGTON, Dec 2: The cost of the US campaign in Afghanistan will be relatively modest compared to recent military engagements such as the Gulf War of 1991 and the 1999 Kosovo campaign, experts and Pentagon figures suggest.
The Defense Department calculated at 1.481 billion dollars the supplementary, or incremental, cost of operation “Enduring Freedom” between the day of the terrorist onslaught September 11 and November 8, one month into the US bombing campaign that began October 7.
In addition, the Pentagon estimates at 588 million dollars the cost of operation “Noble Eagle,” the intensified military surveillance of US territory — which includes patrols by combat planes and the call-up of reservists.
“It is pretty inexpensive,” said Steven Kosiak, an expert on military spending from the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, noting the Gulf War cost more than 60 billion dollars while the Kosovo operation against Serbia which included 78 days of bombing raids stood at around three billion.
“This is a much more modest operation in many ways than either of those wars, certainly than the Gulf War,” he said.
He said US warplanes launched some 90,000 sorties against Iraq during the Gulf War, compared to just 2,000 in Afghanistan during the operation’s first month.
The official figures on the cost of the Afghan campaign cover not only the deployment of some 50,000 military personnel and the bombing raids, but also the distribution of humanitarian aid, which carries, so far, a 66.6 million-dollar price tag.
However, the Pentagon said the figures exclude “force protection, command and control upgrades, additional munitions, and Pentagon repair and is based on the current level of operations.” Additional resources for intelligence were also not included.
“This is incremental, we don’t measure in absolute terms. For instance aircraft carriers are deployed whether or not there is Enduring Freedom,” noted Susan Hansen, a Pentagon spokeswoman.
The real cost of the Afghan war, according to Kosiak, is much greater and takes into account the full price of keeping a fighting force trained and well equipped.
“And don’t forget, the US spends over 300 billion dollars a year, and has for decades, to operate and sustain a large and very capable military,” he said.
“It’s like how much is it to pick up a loaf of bread at local grocery store,” he explained. “Is it just the cost of driving your car there and back or the payments you made for car in the past.”
One of the biggest outlays in Afghanistan — 634 million dollars — is for the deployment of extra ships and some 400 planes to the region around Afghanistan.
The cost of ordnance used against Taliban targets and al-Qaeda hideouts was around 185 million dollars in October.
The price of bombs varies greatly. A conventional one-ton bomb costs 2,500 dollars, a CBU-89 cluster bomb 50,000 dollars. Cruise missiles fired from ships or planes can cost between one and two million dollars each.
Keeping planes in the air is also expensive and variable — 5,000 dollars an hour for an F-18 fighter but 13,700 dollars for the B-2 stealth bomber, which has flown from mainland United States to drop bombs on Afghanistan, according to figures obtained by the New York Times.
Asked whether the cost of the war would diminish from now on, with the Taliban all-but routed from the north of the country, Hansen was not optimistic.
“I wouldn’t make these assumptions,” she said. “We still have to pay people, we still have flights, we have a forward operating base.”—AFP