US Has No Idea of 'War on Terror' Cost: Watchdog

Bogus wars always cost more than anyone is willing to admit. Just look at the war on drugs.

US Has No Idea of 'War on Terror' Cost: Watchdog:

The US government has lost track of the cost of the 'war on terror' unleashed after the September 11 attacks and which is now taking up tens of billions of dollars a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Congress watchdog warned.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that neither the Defence Department nor Congress had any accurate idea how much the war has cost since the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

It said Congress has appropriated about 430 billion dollars for 'war on terror' spending, which includes military operations and reconstruction costs in Iraq, but raised concerns about the way the money was being accounted for.

The GAO said it had already found 'numerous problems' with Defence Department 'processes for recording Global War on Terror (GWOT) costs'. It said that the Pentagon had not done enough since the previous criticism in September to overcome the problems.

It said there was too much use of estimates instead of real cost data and a lack of documentation.

'As a result, neither DoD (Defence Department) nor the Congress reliably know how much the war is costing and how appropriated funds are being used or have historical data useful in considering future funding needs,' said the report.