An Analysis of the U.S. Military's Ability to Sustain an Occupation of Iraq
Abstract
More than 180,000 U.S. military personnel are currently involved in the occupation of Iraq about 150,000 of them deployed in Iraq itself and the rest supporting the occupation from neighboring countries (primarily Kuwait). According to the Department of Defense (DoD), the occupation is costing about $3.9 billion a month to sustain. At the request of the Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has examined the United States capability to sustain an occupation force in Iraq over the long term and the associated costs. In performing its analysis, CBO made no assumptions about how long the occupation might last or about the size of the force that might be necessary. Instead, CBO s work focused on determining how large an occupation the U.S. military could sustain in Iraq indefinitely while still maintaining acceptable levels of military readiness and not jeopardizing the quality of the all-volunteer force under various policy options. Those options include using only combat troops from the Army s active component for the occupation, employing other existing U.S. ground forces as well, and expanding current forces to incorporate two additional Army divisions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 03, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADA461223
Entities
Organizations
- Congressional Budget Office