Society & Culture - Posted by Deborah Baum-Brown on Thursday, June 30, 2011 14:26 - 11 Comments 
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(2 votes, average: 3.00 out of 5) Loading ...War costs: $4 trillion, 225,000 lives
Because the war has been financed almost entirely by borrowing, $185 billion in interest has already been paid on war spending, and another $1 trillion could accrue in interest alone through 2020. (Credit: Department of Defense by Spc. Tia P. Sokimson, U.S. Army/Released)
BROWN (US) — Nearly 10 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the cost of wars include at least 225,000 people killed and expenditures between $3.2 and $4 trillion.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
If conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan continue, they are on track to require at least another $450 billion in Pentagon spending by 2020.
New estimates from the Costs of War project, also detail direct and indirect human and economic costs of the U.S. military response to the 9/11 attacks. Among the group’s main findings:
- The U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Pakistan will cost between $3.2 and $4 trillion, including medical care and disability for current and future war veterans. This figure does not include substantial probable future interest on war-related debt.
- More than 31,000 people in uniform and military contractors have died, including the Iraqi and Afghan security forces and other military forces allied with the United States.
- By a very conservative estimate, 137,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan by all parties to these conflicts.
- The wars have created more than 7.8 million refugees among Iraqis, Afghans, and Pakistanis.
- Pentagon bills account for half of the budgetary costs incurred and are a fraction of the full economic cost of the wars.
- Because the war has been financed almost entirely by borrowing, $185 billion in interest has already been paid on war spending, and another $1 trillion could accrue in interest alone through 2020.
- Federal obligations to care for past and future veterans of these wars will likely total between $600-$950 billion. This number is not included in most analyses of the costs of war and will not peak until mid-century.
“This project’s accounting is important because information is vital for the public’s democratic deliberation on questions of foreign policy,” says Catherine Lutz, professor of anthropology and international studies at Brown University.
“Knowing the actual costs of war is essential as the public, Congress, and the President weigh the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, and other areas including the deficit, security, public investments, and reconstruction.”
“There are many costs and consequences of war that cannot be quantified, and the consequences of wars don’t end when the fighting stops,” says Neta Crawford, professor of political science at Boston University.
“The Eisenhower study group has made a start at counting and estimating the costs in blood, treasure, and lost opportunities that are both immediately visible and those which are less visible and likely to grow even when the fighting winds down.”
The Eisenhower Research Project is a new, nonpartisan, nonprofit, scholarly initiative that derives its purpose from President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1961 farewell address, in which he warned of the “unwarranted influence” of the military-industrial complex and appealed for an “alert and knowledgeable citizenry” as the only force able to balance the often contrasting demands of security and liberty in the democratic state.
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11 Comments
Diane
And this does not count other areas where we have troops fighting: Phillipines: 2002-ongoing, Somalia 2002-ongoing, Trans-Sahara: 2003-ongoing, Libya Bombing: 2011-ongoing.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wars_involving_the_United_States
Robert Reed
How much Peace, Love and Understanding would 4 trillion buy?
Would we be safer? Or would the Bad people have won, and now they’d be in charge?
10 years and 4 trillion dollars. How many water wells, condoms, books and medicines would that have bought? How many cows and goats and tree seedlings?
How many solar panels and the wires to bring the power to the cities?
How many sewage treatment plants and protected watersheds would that have bought here in the USA?
Its more than how we vote – we need to speak up, and spend with our minds focused on whats really before us.
Diane
Robert Reed, Are you really wondering if the “bad guys” might win in Afghanistan? If by bad guys you mean the Taliban, yes, I think the Afghans will probably return to tribal wars. For at least the last 150 years, one power or another thinks they can actually turn Afghanistan into a nation-state. But this has never been a country; it’s merely lines drawn by colonialists. There has never been a strong national government. If we stay to keep trying, the US will be there forever!
John Loyd
Any idea what the below mentioned “treasure” could be? sacks of gold? a typo? ?
“The Eisenhower study group has made a start at counting and estimating the costs in blood, treasure, and lost opportunities that are both immediately visible and those which are less visible and likely to grow even when the fighting winds down.”
Diane
John Loyd are you for real? Treasure in this instance probably means money borrowed to pay for the war. Borrowed from whom? From us, the US taxpayers and that means more debt.
That’s insane!!! And all for what? OIL! I don’t care what anyone says, the only reason we’re over there is to secure assets!
This war was usually cost thousand of American lost their life for no reason. We wouldn’t be facing depression right now if this war never started.
Would the Bad people have won, and now they’d be in charge?
10 years and 4 trillion dollars. How many water wells, condoms, books and medicines would that have bought? How many cows and goats and tree seedlings?
How many solar panels and the wires to bring the power to the cities?
How many sewage treatment plants and protected watersheds would that have bought here in the USA?
How many cows and goats and tree seedlings?
How many solar panels and the wires to bring the power to the cities?
physio
How many water wells, condoms, books and medicines would that have bought? How many cows and goats and tree seedlings?
How many solar panels and the wires to bring the power to the cities?
How many sewage treatment plants and protected watersheds would that have bought here in the USA? http://www.medigym.com.au
$4 trillion? I would have been fine with all of it had we borrowed it to finance advance R&D.
You do realize that if you divided it equally among the states over the ten years it would add an extra $8 Billion to each states budget. Imagine what we could do, like rebuild crumbling highways, get schools in order. Hell RI’s budget was a tad over $7 billion.