September 2, 2005

It costs about $2,000 a day to keep an American soldier in Iraq. Most of that cost (over $700,000 a year) represents logistical expense. Troops must be supplied with food, water, electricity, medical care, Internet access, housing and, well, the list goes on and on. Another major expense is the use of many more civilians than in past wars. Not just civilians in the combat zone, but for other support services all the way back to the United States. It gets pretty expensive. In return, you get much more effective combat troops (which is hard to measure, but even journalists are impressed) and a much lower casualty rate (which is easy to measure, and is historically the lowest ever).