WASHINGTON  – President Barack Obama is seeking $83.4 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, pressing for a war supplemental spending bill like the ones he repeatedly voted against when he was senator and George W. Bush was president.

Obama’s request would push the costs of the two wars to almost $1 trillion since the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, according to the Congressional Research Service. The additional money would cover operations into the fall.

Budget office spokesman Tom Gavin said the White House will send an official request to Congress Thursday afternoon. Congressional aides briefed on the request revealed its overall cost on condition of anonymity since the briefing was private.

Obama was a harsh critic of the Iraq war as a candidate, a stance that attracted support from the Democratic Party’s liberal base and helped him secure his party’s nomination. He opposed a war spending bill in 2007 after Bush used a veto to force Congress to remove a withdrawal timeline from the $99 billion measure.

The upcoming request will include $75.5 billion for the military and more than $7 billion in foreign aid.

Obama announced plans in February to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq on a 19-month timetable.

Obama’s request would push the amount approved for 2009 to about $150 billion, a drop from the $171 billion cost incurred in 2007 and the $188 billion approved for 2008, when Bush increased the tempo of military operations in a generally successful effort to quell the Iraq insurgency.

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama proposed war spending Thursday that nears $11 billion a month for the next year and a half despite the planned drawdown of U.S. forces in Iraq.

The Obama administration wants to spend about $75 billion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through next fall, costs that were largely set by the previous Bush administration. On top of that the budget proposal released Thursday asks Congress for $130 billion for next year.

It’s not clear yet whether Obama’s promise to bring combat troops home from Iraq will carry a cost savings in the near term.

The United States has been spending some $11 billion to $12 billion per month fighting two wars.

“The president is working with his military commanders to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan while responsibly removing combat forces from Iraq,” the White House budget summary said, but details of military spending were not included.

Obama has said he will no longer hide the full costs of the war, as he accused his predecessor of doing, and he did include a special category for war spending in material released to support his budget request for next year.

In years past, the Bush administration separated its spending for things like weapons and military pay from the cost of the wars. It was something of an accounting trick that some Democrats grumbled made it hard to compute the true costs of the unpopular war in Iraq.

Obama’s budget summary doesn’t list the projected costs for each war individually, and a defense official said the $130 billion war request also includes some costs for other overseas spending such as military help in Pakistan.

And as in years past, the figure for what Obama now calls “overseas contingency operations” doesn’t give the complete picture of war spending. Like the old separate war requests under the Bush administration, the Obama category omits military pay, health care and other costs.

Those costs are part of the nearly $534 billion Obama wants for regular Pentagon operations next year.

Altogether, Obama is asking for $739 billion for the military through the fall of 2010.