11-08-2012, 09:26 AM
Well, the CBO isn't a controversial organization, really. So I think they have good reasons for the way they accounted for for the war and as far as my (admittedly not terribly thorough, I'm not an accountant, let alone a specialist on American public budgeting practices, and the issue doesn't greatly interest me as I sort of trust the CBO) efforts to try to understand what's going on I think the best explanation is in that box of the linked CBO report on page 70. Apparently there is no clear (enough) distinction between defense spending related to Irak and Afghanistan, and general defense expenditures. So it's cheaper to deploy troops back home or in other basis abroad, rather than have them in actual war duty, but these troops still have to be paid and require facilities.