WASHINGTON, Nov. 23 (UPI) -- The White House and the U.S. military are using different methods to estimate the cost for the anticipated build-up of Afghanistan troops, analysts say.
The Pentagon says the troop increase will cost $500,000 per year for every additional soldier, but the White House Office of Management and Budget is figuring twice that amount, partly because the president's advisers are being careful not to underestimate the costs and then lose the public's faith, The Chicago Tribune reported Monday.
The Pentagon, meanwhile, is concerned that "sticker shock" might work against them as they seek to justify sending 40,000 more troops to the war zone, the newspaper said.
"Our resources in manpower, our resources in human lives and our resources in money are not infinite," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told the Tribune. "The notion that we wouldn't take each of those things into account does not make a lot of sense to this commander in chief."
But conservatives reportedly suspect the Obama administration is purposely "high-balling" the cost numbers to weaken support for the troop push.
"The large-scale message has been, 'This is going to be hard and expensive,'" said Thomas Donnelly of the American Enterprise Institute.
