To Keep One U.S. Soldier In Afghanistan Costs $500,000 Per Year. For One Taliban Soldier It Costs $2,600

Taliban militants appear at an undisclosed location in Afghanistan
Reuters / Corbis

Adding Afghanistan Troops Could Cost $500,000 Per Person -- CNN

Washington (CNN) -- If President Obama decides to send the 40,000 additional forces to Afghanistan as requested by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, a rough estimate by the Pentagon projects the cost could be an additional $20 billion a year, according to a senior Pentagon official.

The official said the Defense Department comptrollers office has told Congress that based on rough estimates, the total cost of keeping an individual service member in the war zone is now about $500,000 a year.

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My Comment: My estimate for the cost of one Taliban soldier comes from total revenues collected by the Taliban ($400 million per year as estimated from the New York Times), and the number of Taliban soldiers in the field (15,000 soldiers as estimated from Time Magazine).

Therefore .... $400 million divided by 15,000 equals $2,666.

Hmmmmm .....

$500,000 for one U.S. Soldier.
$2,600 for one Taliban soldier. (And I am sure that most of the Taliban's money goes into weapons and ammo).

Wow ....

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