A recently released Pentagon spending report indicates that the monthly cost of the US war in Afghanistan has topped the costs in Iraq for the first time since 2003.
According to the report, the cost of war in Afghanistan for February stood at 6.7 billion dollars. The figure is almost 20 percent higher compared against the 5.5 billion dollars spent in Iraq.
It is estimated that the Afghan war will cost nearly 105-billion dollars in the 2010 fiscal year. The figure is expected to rise in 2011 as costs per service member in Afghanistan are almost twice as expensive as they are in Iraq.
The US has about 87,000 troops involved in the Afghan war. With more deployments on the way, the number is expected to reach over 100,000 by next year.
The combined costs for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have surpassed one-trillion dollars.
The 130,000-strong foreign presence in the country has so far failed to stabilize Afghanistan. The 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, involving forces mostly from NATO countries, has so far failed to bring security to the country.
This is while anti-US sentiments are on the rise in the country with Afghans and regional countries condemning US-led operations which claim the lives of civilians on a daily basis.
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