Troop drawdown won't stop spending machine

When snow starts falling in Afghanistan later this year, fewer U.S. soldiers will be on the ground, and fewer taxpayer dollars will be required to continue to finance the war (as expected to be announced by President Obama on Tuesday).

But the savings in the first year - probably less than $10 billion - won't be much to write home about, especially considering the U.S. has already run up a $443 billion tab in Afghanistan.