The Cost Of Empire

The CBO puts the price of a permanent military occupation of Iraq - the current policy of all the leading GOP candidates - at $10 billion to $25 billion a year, depending on how tough it is to keep the occupation going. This does not include such things as veterans' care, economic costs to the US of deaths and injuries, and other peripherals. It seems to me that the Republican candidates need to explain how they can reduce spending in other areas by the annual $25 billion the Mesopotamian provinces (for they are and would be plural) will absorb.