Who's Counting?

The Pentagon has apparently come up with a brilliant cost-cutting measure:

Citing what it acknowledged was an "unofficial" internal Pentagon document, a watchdog agency has charged that plans to cut funding next year for chemical weapons destruction will cost taxpayers more than five times as much as the government will save.

The Chemical Weapons Working Group said that the House of Representatives' version of next year's defense budget, which cuts $40 million from projects in Pueblo and Kentucky, will wind up costing $220 million over the long term.

Flashback to 2001:

Interviews and documents obtained by The Times show that senior officials have concluded that costs will ultimately rise to about $24 billion, up from an earlier estimate of $15 billion. Pentagon sources said the revised timetables are expected to show that work will not be completed at some of the sites until between 2008 and 2012.

Flashback to 1990:

In a report released on Wednesday, the accounting office said the Army's prototype disposal plant, now in operation, was 32 months behind schedule and would cost at least $190 million more than 1985 estimates. Delays will also increase the cost of storing chemical weapons by $33 million.

To quote myself, "Our CW program posed - and still poses - more danger to us than it ever did to any enemy."