How much does Iraq war cost per month, week, day, hour, minute, second?

This data is available on our website, along with an updated tally of war spending to date.

Here are all the new charts and graphs we put out in the past few weeks:

U.S. Military Spending vs. The World in 2008
Total Iraq and Afghanistan Supplemental War Funding To Date
2008-2009 U.S. Defense Spending Highest Since WWII, Tops Vietnam and Korea
U.S. Defense Spending, 2001-2009
Historical Costs of Previous U.S. Wars

U.S. SPENDING ON IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN BY MONTH, WEEK, DAY, HOUR, MINUTE, & SECOND
(based on adjusted DOD FY 2007 obligations)

IRAQ + AFGHANISTAN
Per Month - $12.3 billion
Per Week - $2.9 billion
Per Day - $410 million
Per Hour - $17 million
Per Minute - $284,722
Per Second - $4,745

IRAQ
Per Month - $10.3 billion
Per Week - $2.4 billion
Per Day - $343 million
Per Hour - $14 million
Per Minute - $238,425
Per Second - $3,973

AFGHANISTAN
Per Month- $2 billion
Per Week - $469 million
Per Day - $67 million
Per Hour - $2.8 million
Per Minute - $46,296
Per Second - $771

SOURCE: Data from Amy Belasco, “The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11,” Congressional Research Service (updated February 8, 2008). Totals may not add due to rounding.

To put these in perspective, my colleague Kingston Reif found a few world records to offer some humorous comparisons:

In the average time it takes you to watch the Oscars (approximately 3 hours, 15 minutes), the United States will spend $55.5 million in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the time it takes you to set the world record in the hundred meter dash (9.74 seconds), the United States will spend $462,163 in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the time it takes you to set the world record in the mile run (3 minutes, 43 seconds), the United States will spend $1.1 million in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In the time it takes you to set the world record for eating a 12” inch pizza (19.91 seconds), the United States will spend $94,473 in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If you had a padded expense account that allowed you to spend $1 million dollars a day on whatever you wanted, it would take you 1,918 years to spend as much as we've spent on Iraq and Afghanistan through March 2008 (approximately $700 billion).