Referring to his escalation of the war in Iraq in last month’s State of the Union speech, Pres. Bush said he was sending “reinforcements of more than 20,000 additional soldiers and Marines to Iraq.” The key phrase in the quote is “more than” — much more:
A study released today by the Congressional Budget Office shows that the real troop increase associated with President Bush’s escalation policy could be as high as 48,000, more than double the 21,500 soldiers that Bush has claimed.
As DefenseTech notes, extra forces are expected because the combat units being sent into Iraq “need to be backed up by support troops, ‘including personnel to staff headquarters, serve as military police, and provide communications, contracting, engineering, intelligence, medical, and other services.’†The CBO’s low estimate envisions at least 15,000 additional support personnel. The alternative scenario “would require about 28,000 support troops in addition to the 20,000 combat troops.â€
Additionally, the cost of the escalation could be as much as five times higher than White House estimates:
According to the study, the costs for the “surge†would also be dramatically different than the President has said. The White House estimated a troop escalation would require about $5.6 billion in additional funding, the CBO now believes “that costs would range from $9 billion to $13 billion for a four-month deployment and from $20 billion to $27 billion for a 12-month deployment, depending upon the total number of troops deployed.â€
Remember the bad old days when the media used to get exasperated with the Clinton administration because they had to parse their statements about Pres. Clinton’s sex life?
Except for Keith Olbermann on MSNBC’s “Countdown” last night, I haven’t heard a single cablenewser express concern that when Pres. Bush said “more than” 21,000, he meant “more than double” 21,000.
Bustards!
