Brown University scholars have released a study of the total expenses of the past ten years of American battles. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have ended in almost 250,000 people being killed, and may expense upward of $4 trillion or even more ultimately. Post resource - Wars cost American taxpayers almost $4 trillion in past decade by Newsytype.com.
There were over 125,000 Iraqi civilians killed
As reported by Reuters, the expenses of war since the 2001 Sept. 11 attacks are being added up by scholars from Brown University. "Costs of War" was the name of the project. The Watson Institute for International Studies released the project. A site is available to see all the findings. This contains about two dozen scholars from different universities. After President Obama has said $1 trillion would be spent on the Afghanistan battle, the research has come about. It may result in being between $3.4 and $4.4 trillion when you count the expense of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Almost 250,000 people are estimated to have been killed. States show that during the battle, there were about 125,000 Iraqi civilians that were killed although journals such as The Lancet was criticized a lot for inaccuracies in estimates, states Al Jazeera.
Interest payments alone in the hundreds of billions
War has caused both the Bush and Obama administrations to borrow heavily. The interest alone is hard to bear. Of the payments already made, there has already been a lot spent. There was $185 billion paid out already. Reuters thinks that more cash will be needed where that came from. CBS reports this number to be around $1 trillion. The president's quote of $1 trillion for war spending is partially accurate; an estimated $1.3 trillion was appropriated for direct war spending. Since the Department of Defense has not yet unveiled its war expenditures, additional expenses are left out of that figure. The amount of money spent just on veterans that were injured in combat is at $36 billion. By 2050, it could possibly be around $900 billion instead though. Other veteran costs, and costs to their families, also have to be paid. That will cost an extra $400 billion. In 2008, there were 181,000 Iraq and Afghanistan battle veterans that got Veterans' Administration benefits, USA Today reports. As of 2006, 947,000 Vietnam vets were receiving similar benefits.
Costs over just working class individuals
It will be decades before everyone can even tally up what the finals costs will be. Besides costs to American taxpayers, the expense to Iraq and Afghanistan in repairing wrecked infrastructure, caring for people with disabilities and lost income from individuals who were killed may never be tallied. A 2010 USA Today article explained that the United States had already spend $44.6 billion by the end of 2009 in rebuilding Iraq which consists of military and security forces. A Foreign Policy article showed how much the U.S. has been doing in Iraq too. The United States has already spent $19 billion on rebuilding efforts. Afghanistan is so decimated that one of few lucrative occupations is cultivating opium. Afghanistan supplied 92 percent of the world's opium last year, according to The Guardian.
Articles cited
Reuters
reuters.com/article/2011/06/29/us-usa-war-idUSTRE75S25320110629
CBS
cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20075350-503544.html?tag=stack
Al Jazeera
english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/06/2011629145430649752.html
Costs of War
costsofwar.org/
USA Today on Veterans Benefits
usatoday.com/news/2008-05-11-disabled-vets_N.htm
USA Today on rebuilding Iraq
usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2010-03-22-iraqcosts_N.htm
Foreign Policy
shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/13/castles_in_the_sky_the_failure_to_rebuild_afghanistan
The Guardian
