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War is not cheap, but it's the human cost that's the highest.

There's a financial cost, but the only costs that are ever real are the costs of our soldiers.

But the thing we do know is whatever it costs to save and protect American lives in this conflict, we're going to spend.

Well, where is the money? Show me the money? Our allies have put up a few billion dollars, but the American taxpayer has been required to shoulder the burden of this war.

As costs mount, in lives and dollars, it is natural to second guess, but one lesson I hope we have learned is that the U.S. cannot go it alone in a policy that leaves American troops taking all the risk and American taxpayers paying all of the costs.

We can't equate spending on veterans with spending on defense. Our strength is not just in the size of our defense budget, but in the size of our hearts, in the size of our gratitude for their sacrifice. And that's not just measured in words or gestures.

We have sent our troops to war without paying for it. Now, we are bringing them home without saying how we are paying for it.

It's a fraction of the cost to prevent a war than prosecute a war.

This war so far has cost us $125 billion and counting, because largely we decided to do it on our own, with only the United Kingdom as a paying, fully participating partner.

War is usually fought over diminishing resources, particulary those that we perceive to be extremely valuable.