U.S. spending on post-9/11 wars to reach $5.6 trillion by 2018

[Sunlei]

Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
November 7, 2017 Media contact: Gillian Kiley 401-863-7287

“The U.S. wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the increased spending on homeland security and the departments of defense, state and veterans affairs since the 9/11 attacks have cost more than $4.3 trillion in current dollars through fiscal year 2017,” said Neta Crawford, Costs of War co-director and a professor of political science at Boston University. “Adding likely costs for fiscal year 2018 and estimated future obligations for veterans’ care, the costs of war total more than $5.6 trillion.”

These areas of spending are not included in the Pentagon accounting of war costs, the researchers say, so many of the wars’ budgetary burdens, from the cost of providing medical care and disability payments to veterans to the cost of missions related to preventing and responding to terrorist threats, go unacknowledged in Pentagon estimates.

“The American public should know what the true costs of these choices are and what lost opportunities they represent,” said Catherine Lutz, project co-director and a professor of international studies and anthropology at Brown University. “Given that the current administration has announced more years of war in Afghanistan and elsewhere, this total will only grow.”

The report considers Department of Veterans Affairs spending because “the full budgetary burden of the wars also includes the costs of providing medical care and disability payments to the many veterans of these wars through the V.A. and Social Security Administration,” Crawford wrote.

http://news.brown.edu/articles/2017/11/costssummary

[maxsolomon]

1. Iraq was going to pay for itself, too.

"Kick their ass & take their gas" was the plan, right?

Consider that if we had to make reparations for the lives shattered, it would bankrupt America. More than it already has, that is.

GWB is still the worst POTUS ever. DJT is just a crass huckster in comparison to that war criminal.

[Sunlei]

2. Everything's borrowed money too, so the interest payments alone will tank our economy.

This is why Republicans love their trumpie in the white house, he's a moron and they can rape Americas state & Federal taxes without ANY interference from "Americas CEO".

[Volaris]

3. Yes I'm so glad we sepnt it on that, instead of useless shit like solar panels, healthcare, and NHSR

We went to the moon. What the fuck has happened to us? (and yes, while I know the answer is Fox News, I will not accept FOX NEWS as the answer. Theres gotta be more, right?).

[Sunlei]

4. I hear you loud & clear. Just think where USA could be if we spent just 2 trillion on healthcare &

education.

[Volaris]

5. Mars or Europa by now...

I cant imagine what NASA and DARPA would have given us with a check for a Trillion dollars to split between them. For a fraction of a fraction of that we got mars rovers, the international space station and the INTERNET.

[Sunlei]

6. hah! you're right, and the rover still sends us more information every day! :P

My Houston friend is an astrophysicist on the rover program.

[Volaris]

7. yep that thing was supposed to be mission functionial for what 6 months? or some piddly amount?

They didnt TRY to build it to last longer than that, and it STILL WORKS. This is what happens when you give smart bored people HALF the money they ask you for lol...