Report: Bush to seek nearly $200 billion for wars in fiscal 2008

Above: A soldier with the 73rd Cavalry Regiment passes an Iraqi family during a foot patrol in the village of Mukisa earlier this month.

After smothering efforts by war critics in Congress to drastically cut U.S. troop levels in Iraq, President Bush plans to ask lawmakers next week to approve another massive spending measure -- totaling nearly $200 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2008, Pentagon officials said.

If Bush's spending request is approved, 2008 will be the most expensive year of the Iraq war...

The Bush administration said earlier this year that it probably would need $147.5 billion for 2008, but Pentagon officials now say that and $47 billion more will be required. Secretary of State Robert Gates and other officials will formally present the full request at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday.

The funding request means that war costs are projected to grow even as the number of deployed combat troops begins a gradual decline starting in December. Spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will rise from $173 billion this year to about $195 billion in fiscal 2008, beginning Oct. 1.

Read the rest at the Chicago Tribune

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