Global war on terror costs since 2001: $5.6 Trillion according to report
Do you remember the cost estimates on the war in Iraq made by Donald Rumsfeld back in 2003? Let me remind you:
In October 2003, Rumsfeld told a press conference about President Bush’s request for $21 billion for Iraq and Afghan reconstruction that “the $20 billion the president requested is not intended to cover all of Iraq’s needs. The bulk of the funds for Iraq’s reconstruction will come from Iraqis — from oil revenues, recovered assets, international trade, direct foreign investment, as well as some contributions we’ve already received and hope to receive from the international community.”
This is just a small sample of our overseas shenanigans costs estimates that were so far off it’s pitiful. And the taxpayers have been duped.
In a new report from the Watson Institute at Brown University reveals some very distressing numbers on the costs the United States incurred on wars in in the Middle East and Pakistan since the 9/11 attacks.
The report states:
The Pentagon publishes an “Estimated Cost to Each Taxpayer for the Wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria,” which calculates the total taxpayer costs on those wars between Fiscal Years 2001 and 2018. That report estimated that the total authorized spending for Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria has been $1.52 trillion, and, on that basis, estimated a total cost to the individual taxpayer of $7,740 from FY2001 to FY2018.
In the Watson analysis, as of late September 2017, the United States wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and the additional spending on Homeland Security, and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs since the 9/11 attacks totaled more than $4.3 trillion in current dollars through FY2017. Adding likely costs for FY2018 and estimated future spending on veterans, the costs of war total more than $5.6 trillion.
Using a more comprehensive estimate of global war on terror costs since 2001, this report estimates that the total cost per individual taxpayer of the post-9/11 wars over this period is $23,386.
This report is very detailed and I believe lays out a reality-based cost analysis of our war spending.
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