Hundreds of billions more than budgeted. "...part of a larger effort by the Bush administration to hide the longer-term costs of the war—especially until after the election."

You think that because what little is spent, with billions of Iraqi dollars missing, comes from oil there's a big savings?

Is that the gist of your post - that it's a bad rap for Cheney/bush because that excursion is really costing less than it should?

But some on Capitol Hill and inside the military say the latest efforts to add new troops without formally expanding the Army are only part of a larger effort by the Bush administration to hide the longer-term costs of the war—especially until after the election. Among those unbudgeted costs: replacing desert-ravaged equipment like Bradley Fighting Vehicles and tanks and a coming surge in veterans' benefits (nearly one in five soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from posttraumatic stress and other disorders, says a new study). Experts say the final tally is likely to amount to hundreds of billions of dollars over the current $400 billion annual defense budget.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Arf