Drawing Down

The Congressional Budget Office believes the Pentagon can shave $6 billion from the price tag of repairing war-torn equipment by adjusting the pace of U.S. troops withdrawals from Iraq.

In an Oct. 7 letter to Rep. John Tierney (D-MA), the non-partisan CBO outlines four alternatives for how the Pentagon might remove equipment and forces from Iraq and still meet the Obama administration's commitment to be gone by the end of 2011. Tierney is chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform national security and foreign affairs subcommittee.

Current plans will require $41 billion to reconstitute war-torn equipment, which CBO believes can be pared back to as little as $35 billion by beginning to withdraw slightly more than four brigades a month beginning this month through next June. The administration plans to sustain current force levels of 128,000 troops in Iraq through the December elections, and in February begin withdrawing three brigades a month through August 2010.