Posted on 03/22/2011 8:28:04 PM PDT by Jim 726
WASHINGTON, March 22 (Reuters) - The no-fly zone over Libya could end up costing the Western coalition more than $1 billion if the operation drags on more than a couple of months, defense analysts say.
Zack Cooper, a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, said the initial cost of eliminating Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's air defenses was likely to be between $400 million and $800 million.
The expense of patrolling the no-fly zone once it is established is likely to be $30 million to $100 million a week, he said.
The U.S. military has no official cost figures yet for the operation, which has been going on less than a week. By comparison, the much more extensive Afghan war costs more than $9 billion a month.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
All that money could go to Social programs. Obama is a war-monger.
they gotta be kidding- we expended $ one hundred million (or more) in missiles the first night
anyone care to price a B-2 carpet bombing raid?
Gee I wonder who will get stuck with the bill?
No blood for sand.
Why are we spending a billion dollars to unseat one terrorist only to replace him with even worse anti-American terrorists?
http://bigpeace.com/dwest/2011/03/21/war-in-libya-making-the-world-safe-for-jihad/
China has plenty of cash-—Don’t you worry!
Or the price of a crashed F-15, that's more than I spend on beer in a whole month ;)
Even the putzes at the Huffingtonandpuffington Post see the problem.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/19/extremists-among-libya-rebels_n_837894.html
Now we know why the Europeans want to cut out and leave America holding the bag. There was no way they are going to fork over a billion dollars per month just to keep Qaddafi's ragtag air force from flying.
When France and Britain first started crying about Libya and that mean old Qaddafi and how a "no-fly" zone was needed, you just knew they were talking about the USA - not them - doing all of the enforcing and paying the bills.
I’m glad O’bummer had long talks and discussions with members of the House and with Senators before an informed full Congress approved any expenditures on a new foreign police action. Monies needed will just be taken out of the general fund just as soon as the US Treasury orders up some fresh electronic entries to be distributed by Federal Reserve as stimulus funds. Otherwise known: Bomb blindly now and pay later, saddling the debt onto future generations.
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