US war costs report 'incorrect'

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Republican lawmakers have demanded that Democrats retract a report which says the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq are costing double what was thought.

Senator Sam Brownback and Congressman Jim Saxton said the study had "many factual errors" and should not stand.

They are the senior Republicans on the Joint Economic Committee (JEC), whose Democratic members wrote the report.

It said "hidden costs" had pushed the total to about $1.5 trillion - nearly twice the requested $804bn (£402bn).

Higher oil prices, the cost of care for wounded veterans and the economic cost of pulling reservists from their jobs were taken into account in reaching the new total, the report said.

Some analysts questioned some of the figures, saying they were speculative.

'Political points'

In a statement, Mr Brownback and Mr Saxton said a number of "obvious errors" had been "quietly corrected" in the online version of the report without its authors alerting the press or public.

READ THE FULL REPORT <a class="" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/13_11_07_us_iraq.pdf">War at any price? [661KB]</a> Most computers will open this document automatically, but you may need Adobe Reader <a href="http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html">Download the reader here</a>

"In the rush to score political points, apparently no-one bothered to fact-check the report," the lawmakers said.

"When erroneous information is injected into the public domain, those responsible are obligated to publicly withdraw this information."

Mr Brownback and Mr Saxton said that "at least 24 multibillion dollar mistakes" had been amended on the web version of the report by Wednesday.

The White House had already dismissed the report as politically motivated.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said on Tuesday the JEC was "known for being partisan and political" and that Republican members had not been consulted.

'Consumers hit'

The Democratic authors of the War at Any Price? report calculate that between 2002 and 2008 the campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan will have cost the average US family of four about $20,900.

The report adds that the amount could rise to $46,400 over the next decade.

It cites costs such as interest payments on money borrowed from abroad to pay for the wars, lost investment in US businesses, and the cost of oil market disruptions.

Its authors estimate that both wars could cost a total of $3.5 trillion over the next decade.

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, chairman of the JEC, said: "What this report makes crystal clear is that the cost to our country in lives lost and dollars spent is tragically unacceptable."