Big Stick Carries Big Price

WASHINGTON: The beefed-up American troop presence in the Gulf may be keeping Saddam on his toes, but it's also busting the Pentagon's budget. Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre told reporters Wednesday that the cost of managing the latest standoff with Iraq has been "well over $600 million." And that's above and beyond the $700 million in ordinary operating costs that congressional bean-counters budgeted for fiscal 1998. With seven months to go, the meter is running.

Compared to the $61 billion Gulf War, of course, an extra few hundred million -- mostly for extra sorties, bigger fuel bills and some "imminent danger pay" for 30,000 U.S. troops -- seems cheap. But in 1991, international contributions brought the U.S. tab down to $7.4 billion. And however thankful Kofi Annan was for that "credible military threat," President Clinton can't start passing the hat this year until all those soldiers actually do something.