By IANS,
Washington : The US is proposing to spend more on the Afghanistan war than on the one in Iraq for the first time, indicating a shift in priority, a media report said Friday.
The $130 billion in war funds that are part of Pentagon’s fiscal 2010 budget request includes $65 billion for Afghanistan operations and $61 billion for Iraq, the Washington Post reported.
For 2009, $87 billion was requested for Iraq and $47 billion for Afghanistan.
The budget covers the deployment of 21,000 additional US troops to Afghanistan this year, raising the total to 68,000 and more funds would be required if President Barack Obama decides to meet the request of US commanders for 10,000 more troops next year, the report said.
The budget also has $700 million for training and equipment to improve Pakistan’s counter-insurgency capability, a rise over the $400 million sought for this year.
The Pentagon’s $534 billion base budget is $21 billion, or four percent, larger than that of last year. It includes key initiatives that reflect Defense Secretary Robert Gates’s plan to reshape the military and make it more suited to fighting today’s wars and less focused on preparing for future conflicts.