Cost of escalation may reach $40 billion.

According to testimony provided by Congressional Budget Office (CBO) during yesterday’s House Budget Committee Hearing on Iraq and Afghanistan Reconstruction, the cost of sustaining the President’s surge strategy in Iraq for two more years will reach $40 billion dollars:

DangerRoom notes that CBO predicted in Feburary that the surge would be “much more costly” than the administration’s estimated $5.6 billion.

Also during the hearing, the Pentagon promised to provide the committee with the estimated “costs of various redeployment timelines” within the next 30 days.