The two-week-old military action in Libya has prompted a frenzy of headlines and sound bites about the operation’s cost.
Can the United States afford it?
The short answer is "yes." The defense budget exceeds $500 billion a year, so the Pentagon has money on hand to pay for Libya.
But that’s not the whole story. The recent events in Libya have opened up a long-standing and important debate about how we pay for our wars and military endeavors around the world.
This article was originally published in CNNMoney.