Arithmetic Riddle... What is the cost of a US Trooper. via [MSNBC]

I just love numbers: the co$t of a single trooper in Iraq is $ 26351 and 35 cents per month. Using reverse counting there are approximately 26000 troopers in Afganistan. Of course it is true only if the cost of a sigle trooper is the same in both locations. :)

Under questioning from Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., Rumsfeld said he did not know how much the administration would propose to pay for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the new budget year that begins Oct. 1.
He said under the $62.4 billion midyear spending bill, the United States expects to spend an average $3.9 billion a month on Iraq from January through September this year. An average of $700 million a month is being spent in Afghanistan.

PENTAGON STATISTICS
The Pentagon said Wednesday 1,044 American servicemen and women have been wounded in action or injured since the war in Iraq began March 20. Of that total, 382 have been wounded or injured since Bush declared major combat over, according to the Pentagon’s figures. Of the 212 U.S. troops who have died in Iraq since the war began, 74 died after May 1, not including Thursday’s toll.
The Army’s 3rd Infantry Division is beginning a phased pullout of its 16,000 troops, with the entire unit expected back in the United States by September, Rumsfeld told the committee. The division, which played a central role in capturing Baghdad in April, is based at Fort Stewart, Ga.
Rumsfeld said there are now 148,000 American troops in Iraq. [source MSNBC]

[Meanwhile...]

Daryl G. Kimball, executive director of the private Arms Control Association, was one of several experts challenging the administration.
“We, along with an increasing number of others, believe that the administration made its case for going to war by misrepresenting intelligence findings as well as citing discredited intelligence information,” Kimball said Wednesday.
And on Capitol Hill, Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., the senior Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said he had a fear “we may find ourselves in the throes of guerrilla warfare for years.”
“We cannot leave Iraq,” Skelton said at a committee hearing with retired Gen. Tommy Franks, the U.S. commander in the war. “This must be a success.”

Bush, responding to concern about the rising casualty toll, said, “There’s no question we have a security issue in Iraq, and we’ve just got to deal with it person to person. We’re going to have to remain tough.”
More than 70 American soldiers have died since Bush declared major combat over May 1, 31 in hostile fire incidents. “It’s going take more than 90 to 100 days for people to recognize the great joys of freedom and the responsibilities that come with freedom,” he said. “It’s very important for us to stay the course, and we will stay the course.”

Franks testified, meanwhile, that besides the 19 countries with forces in Iraq, another 19 were preparing to send troops and 11 were discussing it.