Spotlight on the War in Afghanistan:

National Priorities Project (NPP), in partnership with the American Friends Service Committee, has released The Cost of War in Afghanistan, a four page primer on the war's current economic and human realities.

With this primer, National Priorities Project launches a commitment to track the US cost of the war in Afghanistan through an individual cost of war counter, state-level numbers and trade-offs.
This new series of information is similar to NPP's Iraq War fact sheets
and counters which have been used by national media outlets including
CNN, National Public Radio and MSNBC while
attracting more than 2.5 million web hits each month.

"The purpose of this resource is to help
people across the United States reflect on the current Afghanistan war
and its proposed expansion," notes NPP Executive Director, Jo
Comerford. "With President Obama moving forward with his campaign
promise to increase troop levels in Afghanistan, the US public faces
two important questions as we reach his administration's auspicious
100-day milestone: What will be the cost and impact of more troops, for
both the US and Afghanistan? And what are the Obama Administration's
long-term goals?"

Seven years ago, the "global war on
terror" began in Afghanistan as a military response to the September 11
attacks. In March 2003, the United States also invaded Iraq. Today, US
forces are deeply engaged in both countries with some 200,000 US troops
in the region, of which 137,000 are in Iraq and about 40,000 in
Afghanistan, with the Obama Administration requesting an additional
21,000 troops.

Visit www.nationalpriorities.org to
access this information and other timely federal budget analysis tools
and reports. The American Friends Service Committee can be found
on-line at www.afsc.org.