Publisher's Synopsis
President Obama has announced that all U.S. combat operations for the war in Iraq-also called Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF)-will cease by the end of August 2010. According to the timeline described by Administration officials, the approximately 128,000 U.S. military personnel currently in Iraq would remain there through the Iraqi elections scheduled for January 2010. After that, U.S. forces would decline to no more than 50,000 troops by the end of August 2010. In accordance with the Status of the Forces Agreement signed by Iraq and the United States in November 2008, the remaining 50,000 U.S. troops must leave the country by the end of December 2011. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that to comply with that timeline, the Administration will need to withdraw military personnel from Iraq in two stages: one between the Iraqi election and August 2010, when almost 80,000 U.S. troops would be removed over a period of seven months, and the other before the end of calendar year 2011, when 50,000 troops will need to be withdrawn. CBO estimated two broad categories of costs under the Administration's plan and under several alternatives. Some of those costs-which the Department of Defense (DoD) calls operations costs-including incremental military personnel costs attributable to the war in Iraq and costs for fuel, transportation, and maintenance of equipment in Iraq, would decrease proportionately with the number of service members in the country. Such costs, therefore, would be essentially zero by fiscal year 2013 when, under the Administration's plan, no U.S. forces would remain in Iraq. CBO estimated other costs, for activities that DoD labels "equipment reconstitution," that would not decrease proportionately with the number of troops: costs to repair equipment that is used in the war and returned to the United States and costs to replace equipment lost in the conduct of the war. CBO estimates that costs for operations and equipment reconstitution under the Administration's plan would total $51 billion in 2010 and would decline to $3 billion by 2013.
