Breaking...my brain! Typical Bush math for you: When I say 21,500, I really mean double that. By way of kpete at DU, the Congressional Budget Office has release a memo that says that the real escalation is more like 35,000 to 48,000:
Estimated Costs of Increasing U.S. Forces in Iraq
February 1, 2007
Honorable John M. Spratt Jr.
Chairman
Committee on the Budget
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
At your request, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated the
cost of the President’s plan to increase the number of military personnel
deployed to Iraq under different scenarios related to the duration of that
increase. In summary, CBO estimates that costs would range from $9 billion
to $13 billion for a four-month deployment and from $20 billion to $27 billion for a 12-month deployment, depending upon the total number of troops deployed and including additional costs that would be incurred during the build-up and ramp-down periods.
The analysis depends critically on three key factors:
• How many additional troops will be deployed?
• How long will the deployments last?
• What are the additional costs associated with incremental troop
deployments?
(snip)
To reflect some of the uncertainty about the number of support troops, CBO
developed its estimates on the basis of two alternative assumptions. In one scenario, CBO assumed that additional support troops would be deployed in the same proportion to combat troops that currently exists in Iraq. That approach would require about 28,000 support troops in addition to the 20,000 combat troops—a total of 48,000. CBO also presents an alternative scenario that would include a smaller number of support personnel—about 3,000 per combat brigade—totaling about 15,000 support personnel and bringing the total additional forces to about 35,000.
(more)
This is insane.