The Pentagon wants to keep its $80 billion war chest even though most or all U.S. troops are to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of this year, officials said.
“Overseas contingency operations” funds are separate from the main Pentagon budget and have financed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and counter-terrorism efforts elsewhere for more than a decade.
When President Barack Obama came into office, his deputies vowed to shift war spending back into the Pentagon’s main budget.
But the Defense Department’s proposed budget, as part of the White House’s annual spending plan, calls for $79.4 billion in war funding for fiscal year 2015.
That represents only a small cut in the overseas operations fund accorded $85.2 billion this year.
About 33,700 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan and the bulk of the force is due to depart by December.
The Obama administration hopes to keep a small contingent of up to 10,000 troops in the country beyond 2014—if the Afghan government signs a bilateral security agreement.
In years past, administration officials predicted that war funding would decline significantly with the planned pullout of American forces from Afghanistan.
“That this is a pretty dangerous situation for DoD to be in, with being so heavily dependent on the OCO funding ... because that funding stream could disappear quickly,” he said.
The proposed main defense budget for 2015 is $575 billion, less than the peak in military spending of $691 billion in 2010 but still far beyond the 2001 budget of $316 billion.
(Japan Today)
“Overseas contingency operations” funds are separate from the main Pentagon budget and have financed wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and counter-terrorism efforts elsewhere for more than a decade.
When President Barack Obama came into office, his deputies vowed to shift war spending back into the Pentagon’s main budget.
But the Defense Department’s proposed budget, as part of the White House’s annual spending plan, calls for $79.4 billion in war funding for fiscal year 2015.
That represents only a small cut in the overseas operations fund accorded $85.2 billion this year.
About 33,700 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan and the bulk of the force is due to depart by December.
The Obama administration hopes to keep a small contingent of up to 10,000 troops in the country beyond 2014—if the Afghan government signs a bilateral security agreement.
In years past, administration officials predicted that war funding would decline significantly with the planned pullout of American forces from Afghanistan.
“That this is a pretty dangerous situation for DoD to be in, with being so heavily dependent on the OCO funding ... because that funding stream could disappear quickly,” he said.
The proposed main defense budget for 2015 is $575 billion, less than the peak in military spending of $691 billion in 2010 but still far beyond the 2001 budget of $316 billion.
(Japan Today)
Source : Afghan Voice Agency (AVA), International Service
