Can we afford the Libya mission?

Can we afford the Libya mission?


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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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