Pretty soon, you're talkin' real money...

Remember back in September when the "fact-checkers" were all over Kerry for blaming Bush with having spent $200 Billion on the war, when, actually, at the time, only $120 Billion had actually been spent? How dare he exaggerate that way, and inflate the cost?

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration plans to announce Tuesday it will request about $80 billion more for this year's costs of fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, congressional aides said Monday.

The request would push the total provided so far for those wars and for U.S. efforts against terrorism elsewhere in the world to more than $280 billion since the first money was provided shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, airliner attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. ...

Aides said about three-fourths of the $80 billion was expected to be for the Army, which is bearing the brunt of the fighting in Iraq. It also was expected to include money for building a U.S. embassy in Baghdad, which has been estimated to cost $1.5 billion.

That ought to be a nice embassy. In lower Manhattan you can build a whole Freedom Tower for that kind of money. 1.5 billion would be half-again the dreamed-of federal contribution to completely replace the ready-to-collapse highway viaduct in Seattle with a major underground version, transforming the waterfront of Our Fair City. (But I guess building costs must be higher in Baghdad, what with the Halliburton overcharges to factor in.)