Can we afford the Libya mission?

The costs of Operation Odyssey Dawn are adding up fast. The first day of airstrikes against Moammar Gadhafi's forces in Libya cost the U.S. more than $100 million, and the American share of

enforcing a no-fly zone could run into the billions, according to a National Journal analysis. In fact, the intervention to protect Libya's rebels and civilians could all but wipe out the

savings from the GOP's hard-won spending cuts. With a soaring deficit, can the U.S. afford this? (Watch a Fox News report about the war's costs)

No. We should provide for our own first: Every Tomahawk cruise missile sets us back $1.2 million, says John Baer in the Philadelphia Daily News, and as of Tuesday, we had fired 161 of "those

puppies" at Gadhafi. That F15 fighter jet we lost? Another $31 million. And there's no telling how much we'll throw down "another Mideast rat-hole" before it's all over. "If we really care

about protecting civilians, why don't we do a better job at protecting our own — from unemployment, from health-care cuts, from wage freezes"?

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