The war in Iraq is costing British and American taxpayers over 2,000 pounds a second.
The combined bill for the two countries was revealed yesterday as the conflict its 164th military victim, a British soldier, and four U.S. troops.
Washington's Congressional Budget Office estimated that as of June, up to 250 billion pounds had been spent on combat operations in Iraq.
The tally is snowballing at the rate of five billion pounds a month, which translates to nearly 2,000 pounds every second, The Daily Mail reports.
Britain's war spending is running at 80 million pounds a month, or 31 pounds a second.
Maintaining the British Army presence in Iraq is a major drain on national coffers, according to critics
With U.S. military commanders insisting they need more time to get results from President Bush's troop surge, Washington analysts claim the eventual cost of the conflict could be more than 500 billion pounds.
To put the spending in perspective, America recently pledged 18 million pounds to the United Nations' refugee agency - an amount that would fund military operations in Iraq for less than three hours.
The White House is now admitting for the first time its underestimation of the enemy in the increasingly unpopular and prolonged war.
Pentagon officials confirmed yesterday that the war is costing far more than expected.
The U.S. commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, hinted he would be recommending that extra troops sent to Iraq over the past few months stay until 2009.
