PARIS — As the United States and the world mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, debates are raging about the consequences — for Iraq, the Middle East and America's standing in the world. But the Iraq war's domestic impact — the Pentagon's ever mushrooming budget and its long-term influence on the U.S. economy — may turn out to be its most lasting consequence.
The U.S. Defense Department's request for $515.4 billion in the 2009 fiscal year dwarfs every other military budget in the world. And this huge sum — a 5 percent increase over the 2008 military budget — is to be spent only on the U.S. military's normal operations, thus excluding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Since he took office in 2001, President George W. Bush has increased America's regular military budget by 30 percent, again not taking into account the cost of the wars he launched.