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“For the first time ever, spending in Afghanistan has now topped the cost of the Iraq war by more than a billion dollars.  Let me emphasize, in the Middle East, it is billions.” (MSNBC)

Some call it a quagmire. Others, a must-win.  Whatever your opinion or political view, the cost of the war in Afghanistan is quickly climbing, leaving many to ask, is it too much? 

MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan channels Glenn Beck to voice his gripes.

“We dump the money in the Middle East, that’s a good time — there, enjoy that.  Bribe some people.  Meanwhile, back here in America — New York City, where we know they just put a car bomb and already blew up the World Trade Center, Washington, D.C., they already hit the Pentagon we already know that. We know that they would like to hit all sorts of places here.  Well, for that — pocket change.”

On Working Life, an anti-war writer says the U.S. has better things to do with billions of dollars.

In 2010, the war budget could have covered health care for 11,652,146 Americans, or paid for 731,834 elementary school teachers for an entire year.

He asks, “Where have our priorities gone?”

And another website opposed to the war, Rethink Afghanistan, says loosen up the purse strings— we’re just getting started.   

“We have paid for the entire war to date through borrowing and we have to repay that money with interest...We also need to think about all of the long-term care for veterans.  These things are very significant long-term costs.”

But while Fox News mentioned the new budget numbers, it focused coverage on costs of a different kind.

MACCALLUM:  “Talk to us about the human cost of the war in Afghanistan”

EMANUEL:  “I asked Mr. Poole about receiving the worst possible news a father could ever hear.  Take a listen.”

POOLE:  “You don’t want to know what it’s like.  You don’t know what it’s like to have a knock at your door early in the morning and there’s two marines standing there. And you know when you see those two marines that your son was killed in action.”

Finally, on Apex News Network, a writer says, expect to see a big war budget for the foreseeable future.

“…[President Obama] has made it clear that the U.S. won’t be finished there just because the troops have left.  In other words, we’ll still be pouring money into the War in Afghanistan even after the War in Afghanistan is complete.”

So how much is too much when it comes to Afghanistan?  Or is there a limit to national security interests abroad?

Get more multi-source political news and video analysis from Newsy.com.

WRITER: Chance Seales

PRODUCER: Newsy Staff