Obama asks for $83.4 billion to fund Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through 2009

Obama is again asking for more money from Congress, this time $83.4 billion that will only be enough to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of September. This will be a now running total of the cost of war to $947 billion. Most of what has been appropriated so far, about $864 billion, has gone to the war in Iraq. More money will be used eventually for Afghanistan, as President Obama plans to move his troops from Iraq to Afghanistan, which will be used to battle the al Qaeda and Taliban fighters. With the availability of intelligence, President Obama has determined that the situation in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan "demands urgent attention", according to Obama in a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
About $75 billion of the latest request would pay for military operations, including $9.8 billion for body armor and protective vehicles and $11.6 billion to replace worn-out equipment. The rest would go to diplomatic programs and development aid -- including $1.6 billion for Afghanistan, $1.4 billion for Pakistan and $700 million for Iraq. The supplemental spending bill is likely to be the last such request submitted to Congress to pay for the wars, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. While the Bush administration relied on supplemental spending bills to fund the conflicts, Obama began including war spending in his 2010 budget.
 Last month, Obama announced the United States plans to withdraw most of its troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010. A residual force of between 35,000 to 50,000 troops will remain until December 31, 2011. There are 142,000 American troops in Iraq now.
Obama has ordered the deployment of 17,000 troops to fight the Taliban in the south and east and 4,000 more to train Afghan troops.