U.S. military operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) have cost up to $930 million as of Sept. 24, according to a report released earlier this week, as the Pentagon broadens its air campaign against extremist Sunni militants in Syria and Iraq.
The Army and Marine Corps may have wasted more than $100 million returning vehicles from Afghanistan that they don’t need over just a one-year period, according to a Government Accountability Office report released Tuesday.
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said last week that the Pentagon is spending $7 million to $10 million a day on operations in Iraq, and now Syria, that began Aug. 8 and include airstrikes, humanitarian air drops and the addition of what will soon be 1,600 U.S. advisers and headquarters personnel in Iraq.
/…/ Placing stricter restrictions on how OCO money is spent likely means the spending account will remain in place, said Todd Harrison, senior fellow for defense budget studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “That is part of keeping it around long-term is changing the criteria for what counts as OCO.”
President Barack Obama’s expansion of airstrikes in the Middle East is creating new strains on Pentagon planners who thought the days of costly military operations in that region were over—at least for now.
The cost of U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic militants in Iraq and Syria may be approaching $1 billion, according to an independent analysis.
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