by Pascal Boniface (Pascal Boniface is Director of the Institute for International and Strategic relations, Paris (IRIS). His most recent book is Football et Mondialisation (Football and Globalization).)

PARIS – As the United States and the world mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, debates are raging about the consequences – for Iraq, the Middle East, and America’s standing in the world. But the Iraq war’s domestic impact – the Pentagon’s ever mushrooming budget and its long-term influence on the US economy – may turn out to be its most lasting consequence.

The US Defense Department’s request for $515.4 billion in the 2009 fiscal year dwarfs every other military budget in the world. And this huge sum – a 5% increase over the 2008 military budget – is to be spent only on the US military’s normal operations, thus excluding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan……