Bush: Americans should agree that Iraq burden is worth bearing

The war in Iraq has been more expensive than every other US military conflict except World War II, but President Bush says we haven't spent enough there yet, nor does he think the war is all that costly in relative terms.

The defense budget, Bush stressed in a speech Thursday, is only 4 percent of the total US economy, compared to military spending that approached 13 percent of Gross Domestic Product during the Cold War and was 6 percent of GDP under President Reagan.

"Our citizens recognized that the imperative of stopping Soviet expansion, justified this expense," Bush said. Today's spending, he said, "pales when compared to the cost of another terrorist attack on our people. We should be able to agree that this is a burden worth bearing."

In addition to announcing a plan to halt a drawdown of US troops from Iraq this summer and reduce the length of deployment from 15 to 12 months, Bush also called on Congress to approve another $108 billion "emergency war funding request" that will continue paying for the conflict in Iraq that is stretching into its sixth year. RawStory