The United States military’s top leaders told lawmakers on Tuesday that the thousands of additional US troops President Donald Trump has ordered to Afghanistan will cost just over $1 billion a year, bringing the total bill for fighting America’s longest war to $12.5 billion annually.
During wide-ranging hearings on Capitol Hill, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also said that the US should remain in the nuclear deal negotiated during the Obama administration that constrains Iran’s ability to build a nuclear arsenal.
Trump has trashed the international accord, a cornerstone of Barack Obama’s presidency, as the worst agreement ever negotiated by the US and signalled he may abandon the agreement.
The release of the Afghan war cost information came as Senator John McCain, R-Ariz., assailed Mattis and Marine Corps Gen Joseph Dunford, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, for withholding from Congress key details about Trump’s new strategy for winning in Afghanistan that was announced six weeks ago.
