Associated Press – 2008-04-10 21:25:31

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080403/NEWS03/804030404/1013

WASHINGTON (April 3, 2008) — Think you’re being gouged by Big Oil? US troops in Iraq are paying almost as much as Americans back home, despite burning fuel at staggering rates in a war to stabilize a country known for its oil reserves.

Military units pay an average of $3.23 a gallon for gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, some $88 a day per service member in Iraq, according to an Associated Press review and interviews with defense officials. A penny or two increase in the price of fuel can add millions of dollars to US costs.

Critics in Congress are fuming. The US, they say, is getting suckered as the cost of the war exceeds half a trillion dollars — $10.3 billion a month, according to the Congressional Research Service.

Some lawmakers say oil-rich allies in the Middle East should be doing more to subsidize fuel costs because of the stake they have in a secure Iraq. Others point to Iraq’s own burgeoning surplus as crude oil prices top $100 a barrel. Subsidies let Iraqis pay about $1.36 a gallon.

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