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Bigger US army to cost $70bn
23/01/2007 22:40 - (SA)
Washington - The Bush administration's
plan to permanently increase the size of the US army -
strained by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan - will cost $70bn over five years, an army general said on Tuesday.
Lietenant-General Stephen Speakes said the cost of adding 62 000
soldiers to the army would come on top of existing bills to
repair and replace equipment worn out in Iraq. The cost of
those repairs has been estimated at $13.5bn in fiscal
year 2008.
The army did not want policymakers to shift defence
spending away from other branches of the armed forces to pay
for additional soldiers, Speakes said.
"We're not into a zero-sum game in which we're trying to
take from the other services," he told reporters. "We need a
healthy and robust other-service contribution to this fight."
"What we're asking for then is that Americans make a
decision on priorities," he said.
The Pentagon has proposed boosting the size of the army to
547 000 and the marine corps to 202 000. Those services are the
two military branches most pressured by long and extended
deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Reuters
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