The Pentagon estimates the U.S. military buildup in the Middle East since Hamas’ Oct. 7 Al-Aqsa Flood Operation will cost $1.6 billion, a bill the department is unable to pay due to lawmakers’ inability to pass a budget, according to two U.S. officials.
The Defense Department recently sent the estimate to congressional appropriators in response to questions, said the officials, who were granted anonymity to speak about information that hasn’t been made public.
The overall number includes the cost to send additional warships, fighter jets and equipment to the region, and keep them there for the last four months, the officials said. It does not include the cost of the missiles the U.S. military has expended striking Ansarullah positions in Yemen or knocking down drones and missiles in the Red Sea, they said, because there is not enough data yet to make those calculations.
Over a full year, the cost for the military surge could rise to $2.2 billion, according to the estimate.
The ballooning tab is the latest complication in the rapidly expanding Middle East conflict. And the estimate hits Congress as negotiations over President Joe Biden’s supplemental request for more than $100 billion to assist ‘Israel’, Ukraine and Taiwan reach a pivotal point in the Senate.
Since Oct. 7, the Pentagon has ordered an additional aircraft carrier strike group, Marine-carrying amphibious ships, fighter jets, air defenses and hundreds of troops to the Middle East. Those forces initially served to deter additional groups from getting involved in the conflict, and more recently have been protecting civilian ships in the Red Sea from attacks by Ansarullah fighters.
But because lawmakers have not yet agreed on a full-year spending bill for the Defense Department, the military does not have the money to pay for those unplanned operations, as POLITICO reported in November.
“It will be, I think, a hole that we would want to be filled,” said one of the officials. “It is a bill that will be due and we will have to pay for it within a limited amount of resources.”
Source: Al-Manar English Website
