Aliza Chasan
Proposed Headline: Cost of fighting ISIS Soars
News Hook: A bipartisan group of 35 representatives in the house have called for House Speaker Paul Ryan to officially authorize a war on ISIS.
Nut Graf: The average daily cost of fighting ISIS has gone up nearly 20 percent since June. The cost could go up even higher soon. Most of the daily costs – about two-thirds – have from from the Air Force, but at the end of October, President Barack Obama authorized boots on the ground in Syria.
The Data: Preliminary data is here. I’m waiting on the Defense Department to send me additional data. Data Source: http://www.defense.gov/News/Special-Reports/0814_Inherent-Resolve
Description of Data: The data breaks down money spent on the fight against ISIS for the last five months as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. It breaks down daily average expenditures and average costs by expense, service (branch of the military) and category.
One Source You’ve Spoken to or Potential Sources:
- Richard Betts, professor of war at Columbia – rkb4@columbia.edu, 212-854-7325
- Stephen Biddle, national security expert – sbiddle@gwu.edu, 202-509-8476
- Janine Davidson, national security expert – jdavidson@cfr.org
- Michael O’Hanlon, defense policy expert – 202.797.6146, 202.797.6103 — Media Inquiries
- Gordon Adams, foreign policy expert – (202) 885-1651, gadams@american.edu