Iraq: Even after withdrawal U.S. to spend over 6 billion next year

   Although the U.S. forces are slated to withdraw from Iraq by the end of this year, the U.S. ambassador announced that the U.S. would spend over 6 billion dollars in the country in 2012. The U.S embassy in Iraq is the largest in the world. The full U.S. mission according to the ambassador, James Jeffrey, will consist of up to 16,000 people including many security contractors.
    About 8 billion of the expenditures will be for military sales. The U.S. is doing much of the training and equipping of the Iraq armed forces. Altogether the Iraq war cost  the U.S. hundred of billions of dollars and thousands of  U.S. and other soldiers dead.
    Violence continues in Iraq as insurgents still are able to mount terrorist attacks and Al Qaeda groups although weakened still operate within Iraq. Even though the U.S. expenditures are much reduced they still seem to be wasteful at a time when the U.S. is facing a huge debt problem. For more see this article.