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September 6, 2008 11:30:29 PM CDT

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Fighting Forces Get No Break on Fuel Price Hikes

Posted Jun 28, 08 7:37 AM CDT in US 

(AP) – Consumers at the gas pump aren't the only ones suffering sticker shock: Military units in Iraq and elsewhere will see another hike in fuel costs next week, the second increase this budget year amid soaring oil prices. On July 1, the cost for refined fuel used by troops will jump 34% to more than double what the Pentagon was paying 3 years ago, the AP reports. The military estimates that every $1 increase in the market price per barrel translates into a $130-million rise in costs for US forces.

While the $400-million-a-month jump in fuel costs won't affect ongoing operations, it will impact a federal budget already stretched thin by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And some lawmakers say it's time for Iraq to use its soaring oil revenues to defray US costs. "The Iraqis continue to subsidize the fuel for their own citizens, but our troops, which are fighting side by side with them, continue to pay top dollar," Sen. Susan Collins tells the AP.

Source Associated Press

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A U.S. Army soldier aims his weapon as he secures the area on a roof of a building in Baghdad, Iraq, on Wednesday.   (AP Photo)
A young girl passes an Iraqi Army tank as soldiers secure a road in Amarah, 320 kilometers (200 miles) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq on Sunday, June 15, 2008. Helicopters blanketed Amarah with pamphlets...   (AP Photo)
Iraqi boy watches a US tank roll by a wreck of a car bomb in Baghdad, Iraq.   (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed )
US soldiers try to extinguish an American armoured vehicle at Al Canal street, near Sadr city, Baghdad, Iraq, after a roadside bomb exploded next to a convoy, on Monday, May 26, 2008, police said.   (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
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