[link|http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/09/28/cost_of_iraq_war_nearly_2b_a_week/?page=1|http://www.boston.co...2b_a_week/?page=1]

Cost of Iraq war nearly $2b a week

[...]

"Another major war cost is for infrastructure -- bases, landing strips, repair shops -- for the forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. These "operations and maintenance" costs remained steady at about $40 billion per year in 2003, 2004, and 2005, but have spiked to more than $60 billion this year.

Those factors alone, however, are "not enough to explain" the spiraling increase in operating costs, according to the report.

"You would expect [operating costs] to level off if you have the same level of people," said the report's principal author, Amy Belasco, a national defense specialist at the Congressional Research Service. ``You shouldn't have as much cost to fix buildings that were presumably repaired when you got there. It's a bit mysterious."



It's a bit mysterious. See Ashton's post above.