lucky severson reports. >> going into the iraq war, u.s. military officials described the overwhelming force they intended to employ as "shock and awe." now it seems that same phrase could be used to describe the overall cost of that war and the one in afghanistan and the u.s. engagement in neighboring pakistan. it's much greater than predicted by the government, according to a report compiled by the watson institute for international studies at brown university. it's called the eisenhower research project, codirected by professors catherine lutz and neta crawford. >> i've been looking at the history of war and its conduct for a long time, and what struck me about these three wars most startlingly was how much we don't know about the costs. >> the reasonable estimate is approximately $4 trillion for the war, up to today and including some of the future cts that wee obligated to pay for veterans care. >> that estimate includes the cost of the fighting that hasn't ended yet, but it does not include as much as a trillion dollars just for the i

chuck severson, abc news. >> for the latest on the path of that storm let's check in with our meteorologist, lisa, with the latest. >> hello. good morning, everyone. we are looking at winds of 45 miles an hour. the tropical storm lee has been very sluggish and it continues to meander just to the north. this will be impacting with a funnel band to enhance the rainfall from the areas that have seen a lot of rain since irene. we have problems in the north. the tennessee valley already 2 to 6 inches through parts of the south. talking parts of alabama, mississippi, florida and already looking at some flash flatting in parts of louisiana. but we will be looking at the totals of 15 inches throughout the day in in and the actual cer of lee will continue to move up through south central louisiana today. you can see the heavy rain bands moving up through i10, through atlanta and right here the low-lying areas. so some dangerous conditions there. not out of the woods yet. some changes to our local weather forecast for the holidays, those are coming up in a little bit. >> thank you, lisa. here at home

chuck severson, abc news. >>> lisa is tracking the tropical storm and is here now. what is the latest, lisa? >> carolyn, the only good news out of this is that the winds have backed off a little bit. right now we are look at upwards of nine inches of rain that has already fallen in parts of south central louisiana. winds are at 45 miles an hour so those are some of the stronger gusts. slowly drift to go the north at 2. we still are working at the possibility of around 2 to 6 more inches, which would put the totals up between 10 and 15 inches of rain. so today south central louisiana are going to be seeing the eye push up toward central louisiana, and with that still looking at 2 to 6 inches of rain. you can see the heavy rain. flash flooding is possibility and the possibility of a tornado or two as well. still some very serious conditions here. a look at our weather coming up later. >> thank you, lisa. there is powerful surf at home. though it is diminishes somewhat today, beach goers should be cautious about dangerous rip tides throughout the weekend. the south-fac