The Department of Defense (such is its name in these halcyon days) recently studied its costs in Afghanistan and found that American taxpayers foot a bill in Afghanistan of about two billion dollars a week. No, really, I’m not making it up.

WASHINGTON — President Obama will talk about troop numbers in Afghanistan when he makes a prime-time speech from the White House on Wednesday night. But behind his words will be an acute awareness of what $1.3 trillion in spending on two wars in the past decade has meant at home: a ballooning budget deficit and a soaring national debt at a time when the economy is still struggling to get back on its feet.

The reason I bring this up:

ABC News’ Luis Martinez (@LMartinezABC) reports: The cost of U.S. military intervention in Libya has cost American taxpayers an estimated $896 million through July 31, the Pentagon said today.

The word for that is “frugal.” No, the war in Libya will not cost an arm and a leg. The new government will show up in Tripoli and operate openly. Meanwhile, Moammar Ghadafi is irrelevant. This is how you destroy a king in chess, and a would-be king in reality: by creating new facts in his land and in his cities. The story isn’t over yet, but it’s one that Libyans are writing. It’s a good one.