Iraq war tab way over 2003 estimates

WASHINGTON, March 19 (UPI) -- The Bush administration put a $60 billion price tag on the war in Iraq in 2003 but, five years on, the Pentagon puts the running tab at about $600 billion.

Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz puts the long-term costs of the war in Iraq at more than $4 trillion but the Congressional Budget Office paints a bit more of an optimistic picture, placing the cost at about $2 trillion, The New York Times said Wednesday.

But the tab may stay open for awhile, as Congress discusses war-funding measures in an bill that some Democrats say they won't bother amending with benchmarks or deadlines because that strategy continues to falter.

U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, criticizes the Bush administration for having "no clear exit strategy for our troops, no path to political reconciliation, and no accounting of the costs to our budget or economy."

But Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, notes that "none of these calculations take into account the cost of failure in Iraq."

Steven Koziak with the nonpartisan group, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessment, paints a gloomy picture, noting, "Under reasonable scenarios, assuming we don't pull out rapidly, we may only be halfway through."