[Century 25]

Quote by: Keith Hamburger We've been 15-20 years away from workable fusion for the past 30 years. In fact, I can remember working on my undergraduate physics degree when many were talking about us being 10 years away with then current funding. I'm not opposed to fusion research but we really have to watch the hype before we get carried away with spending too much money here. Keith

Spending too much money..?? Let's look at this:

The Bush administration said earlier this year that it probably would need 147.5 billion dollars for fiscal 2008, but Pentagon officials now say that and 47 billion dollars more will be required, The Times said. That would spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at about 195 billion in fiscal 2008, which begins in October 1, an increase of around 12 percent from the 173 billion dollars spent this year. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other officials are to formally present the full request at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Wednesday, the report said. When costs of CIA operations and embassy expenses are added, the war in Iraq currently costs taxpayers about 12 billion dollars a month, said Winslow Wheeler, a former Republican congressional budget aide who is a senior fellow at the Center for Defense Information in Washington. "Everybody predicts declines, but they haven't occurred, and 2008 will be higher than 2007," the paper quotes Wheeler as saying. "It all depends on what happens in Iraq, but thus far it has continued to get bloodier and more expensive." In 2004, the two conflicts together cost 94 billion dollars; in 2005, they cost 108 billion; in 2006, 122 billion, the paper said. The new spending request is likely to push the cumulative cost of the war in Iraq alone through 2008 past the 600-billion-dollar mark -- more than the Korean War and nearly as much as the Vietnam War, based on estimates by government budget officials, The Times said.

excerpted from: AFP: Bush to ask 195 billion to fund Iraq, Afgan wars: report

And.. here is a counter, is this reasonable..?? National Priorities Project - Cost of War