The Cost of Wars Such as War with Iraq

Prior to September 11, 2001 the line delineating national defense expenditures and other expenditures in the federal budget was reasonably clear. And civil expenditures that became defense expenditures in time of war or national emergency were well understood. For example, the Coast Guard, as a peacetime component of the Department of Transportation, came under Navy direction, while the National Guard, nominally under command of state governors, was federalized.…