U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan have cost American taxpayers around $5 trillion since they began in 2001, according to a new study. This is a figure that is more than three times that of the Pentagon's own estimates.
The Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University conducted the study, which aimed to reflect the costs of war not considered by the Pentagon—including the costs that weren’t taken on by the Defense Department in the first place.
“War costs are more than what we spend in any one year on what’s called the pointy end of the spear,” the study’s author, Neta Crawford, told the Journal. “There are all these other costs behind the spear, and there are consequences of using it, that we need to include.”
The report explains the following costs:
As of August, 2016, the U.S. has already appropriated, spent or taken on obligations to spend more than $3.6 trillion in current dollars on the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and on Homeland Security (2001 through fiscal year 2016). To this total should be added the approximately $65 billion in dedicated war spending the Department of Defense and State Department have requested for the next fiscal year, 2017, along with the additional nearly $32 billion requested for the Department of Homeland Security in 2017, and estimated spending on veterans in future years. When all this is included, the total budgetary cost of U.S. wars reaches $4.79 trillion.
Of course the greatest cost of all cannot be measured in money, but in lives. According to our report on the Death Toll of American Wars, around $4 million have been killed in America's wars and sanctions in the Middle East from 1990 to the present.
THE REPORT
US Budgetary Costs of Wars through 2016: $4.79 Trillion and Counting REPORT (Watson Institute)
NEWS ARTICLES
US spending on Middle East wars, Homeland Security will reach $4.79 trillion in 2017 (Brown University)
U.S. Spent Trillions on Wars in Middle East and Asia: Study (The Wall Street Journal, 11-8-17)
Report: Post 9/11 Wars Have Cost Taxpayers Nearly $5 Trillion And Counting (Mintpress, 9-14-16)
The True Cost of the Afghanistan War May Surprise You (TIME, 1-1-15)
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Death Toll from US Wars (World Future Fund)