Wars may cost trillions by 2017

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost as much as $2.4 trillion through the next decade, according to an analysis released Wednesday that the White House brushed off as “speculation.”

The analysis, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, provides the most comprehensive and far-reaching estimate to date, taking into account costs previously not counted and assuming large number of forces would remain in the regions.

“By any yardstick, that’s a staggering sum,” said House Budget Committee Chairman John M. Spratt Jr., a South Carolina Democrat. “No one can contest the enormous cost so far in Iraq or the likelihood that these costs will keep being incurred into the immediate future.”

According to the budget office, the U.S. has spent about $600 billion on both wars, including $39 billion in diplomatic operations and foreign aid.

If the U.S. cuts the number of troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan to 75,000 six years from now, it would cost the U.S. an additional $1 trillion for military and diplomatic operations and $705 billion in interest payments to pay for the wars through 2017.

Democrats say voters won’t stand for it, and so they would consider paying for the military campaigns in brief installments instead of full one-year terms.

The White House brushed off the estimate as too conditional.

“It’s just a ton of speculation,” White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said. “We don’t know how much the war is going to cost in the future.”

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Rahm Emanuel of Illinois said voters were suffering from “sticker shock.”

“America’s future is being held hostage by the cost of the war,” he said.