Whether troop levels increase, decrease, or stay the same in the coming months, U.S. war efforts in Iraq will become more and more expensive, The Christian Science Monitor reported on Tuesday (Nov 21st).

The cost of the war in Iraq has now surpassed 300 billion U.S. dollars, according to government estimates, said the report.

Add in activities in Afghanistan, and the total price of the global war on terror is 507 billion dollars, making it one of the most monetarily costly conflicts in which the country has ever engaged.

Now the Pentagon is in the process of drawing up its follow-on request for the remainder of fiscal year 2007.

Reports indicate that the Pentagon could ask for 120 billion to 160 billion dollars, which would be its largest funding request yet for the global war on terror.

The drain of continued fighting in Iraq has meant that the global war on terror has steadily moved up the list of the most costly conflicts in the U.S. history.

In 2005, it passed the Korean War's inflation-adjusted cost of 361 billion dollars.

Next year it will almost certainly pass the Vietnam War's 531 billion dollars, making it the second most expensive U.S. war ever, behind World War II.

Using a scenario in which levels of deployed U.S. troops fall to 73,000 by 2010, and then stay at that figure, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the cumulative cost of the global waron terror could reach 808 billion dollars by 2016.

However, after winning the midterm elections, Democrats will certainly look for ways to increase pressure on the White House to control war costs.

Editor: Donald