Price tag of the ‘war on terror’ will top $6 trillion soon

[charrob]

Price tag of the ‘war on terror’ will top $6 trillion soon:

The price tag of the ongoing “war on terror” in the Middle East will likely top $6 trillion next year, and will reach $7 trillion if the conflicts continue into the early 2020s, according to a new report out Wednesday.

The annual Costs of War project report, from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, puts the full taxpayer burden of fighting in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria over the last 17 years at several times higher than official Defense Department estimates, because it includes increases in Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs spending, as well as new military equipment and personnel.

“Because the nation has tended to focus its attention only on direct military spending, we have often discounted the larger budgetary costs of the post-9/11 wars, and therefore underestimated their greater budgetary and economic significance,” the new report states.

Direct military spending in Iraq and Afghanistan make up nearly $1.8 trillion in costs, but researchers estimate the long-term health care of veterans from those wars could equal or surpass that figure in coming decades.

They also charge that the Defense Department’s base budget has grown more than $900 billion over the last 17 years because of increased missions, recruiting costs and service member benefits brought on by the conflicts overseas.

“High costs in war and war-related spending pose a national security concern because they are unsustainable,” study author Neta Crawford said in the report. “The public would be better served by increased transparency and by the development of a comprehensive strategy to end the wars and deal with other urgent national security priorities.”

She also blasted current U.S. national security policy as “no strategy to end the wars other than more of the same.”

About 23,000 U.S. and NATO forces are currently operating in Afghanistan in a non-combat, training-and-support role. About 14,000 of that group are American troops.

More than 4 million veterans in America today served during the Iraq and Afghanistan war era.

The full report is available on the project’s web site.

[RJ Liberty]

Crazy.

[Danke]

Nobody ever said freedom was cheap.

[shakey1]

The WOT is an utter failure.

[RJ Liberty]

The WOT is an utter failure.

Of course it is. We didn't even invade the right countries, for the most part. Geography fail.

[AZJoe]

A $trillion here, and a $trillion there, and pretty soon you are talking about real money.

[kpitcher]

Bush said it would only cost 50 billion to make Iraq a democracy, and the people would be greeting us on the streets waving flags and throwing flowers.

[TheTexan]

# of terrorists killed since the war on terror: 500,000+
# of planes crashed into skyscrapers since the war on terror: 0

6 trillion is a small price to pay for having defeated terrorism

[enhanced_deficit]

Can't put a price tag on freedom. But other NATO players should pay more towards their share in globalism wars.

[Republicanguy]

The difference is, America is a union of states, Europe isn't, the societies are too small there, and use less energy compared to %5 of the world's population.

[Swordsmyth]

The difference is, America is a union of states, Europe isn't, the societies are too small there, and use less energy compared to %5 of the world's population.

Completely irrelevant.

[Republicanguy]

Sure is, 25% use of energy, and 5% of the world's population.

America has more to lose. Than say Britain.

[Swordsmyth]

Sure is, 25% use of energy, and 5% of the world's population.

America has more to lose. Than say Britain.

[Republicanguy]

What can one state, you don't like the inconvenient truth. Like meeting deluded socialists, who believe in a fair world.

[Swordsmyth]

What can one state, you don't like the inconvenient truth. Like meeting deluded socialists, who believe in a fair world.

You are deluded, energy consumption is irrelevant, we can buy oil or produce our own without fighting wars.

[Peace Piper]

we can buy oil or produce our own without fighting wars.

Oil is yesterday. But that is where the US is- yesterday. Still imagining it is the center of the universe. Still imagining it matters. And it only matters (to the degree that it does) because of the MIC and the trillions it steals from the dupes and the terror and death it rains down on 3rd world people. The USA is a bankrupt nation, bankrupt fiscally, morally and spiritually.

[Swordsmyth]

Oil is yesterday. But that is where the US is- yesterday. Still imagining it is the center of the universe. Still imagining it matters. And it only matters (to the degree that it does) because of the MIC and the trillions it steals from the dupes and the terror and death it rains down on 3rd world people. The USA is a bankrupt nation, bankrupt fiscally, morally and spiritually.

Go live in China and enjoy the totalitarian centrally planned future.


"I have seen the future and it works" Lincoln Steffens

[Peace Piper]

Go live in China and enjoy the totalitarian centrally planned future.

Nope.

I'm here to fight those who have ruined this nation. And those who seek to divide what's left.

And oil is yesterday. Like coal.

Say what you will about China- far from perfect but in 20 years they built a high speed rail network. They built futuristic cities like Shanghai- look at a picture of that 30 years ago. They are today what the US once was before it became infected with corruption and idiocy.

In 20 years, the US has managed to bomb and invade country after country after country. Blown the treasury. Alienated the rest of the world. Has become a cesspool of childish idiots - divided and conquered. A disgrace.

[Swordsmyth]

Nope.

I'm here to fight those who have ruined this nation. And those who seek to divide what's left.

And oil is yesterday. Like coal.

Say what you will about China- far from perfect but in 20 years they built a high speed rail network. They built futuristic cities like Shanghai- look at a picture of that 30 years ago. They are today what the US once was before it became infected with corruption and idiocy.

In 20 years, the US has managed to bomb and invade country after country after country. Blown the treasury. Alienated the rest of the world. Has become a cesspool of childish idiots - divided and conquered. A disgrace.

China has stolen and borrowed its way into the biggest bubble ever while building the most advanced tyranny on earth, they have also bullied and antagonized their neighbors and conned other countries into neo-colonial debt traps.

They are nothing like what the US was and they will become far worse than the US is if they don't collapse first.

[Anti Globalist]

Wonder how big that price tag is going to get before we eventually start paying it off.