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posted by martyb on Tuesday October 25 2016, @10:49AM   Printer-friendly
from the aggression-is-expensive dept.

The Intercept reports:

The total U.S. budgetary cost of war since 2001 is $4.79 trillion, according to a report [PDF] [...] from Brown University's Watson Institute. That's the highest estimate yet.

Neta Crawford of Boston University, the author of the report, included interest on borrowing, future veterans needs, and the cost of homeland security in her calculations.

The amount of $4.79 trillion, "so large as to be almost incomprehensible", she writes, adds up like this:

  • The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and other overseas operations already cost $1.7 trillion between 2001 and August 2016 with $103 billion more requested for 2017
  • Homeland Security terrorism prevention costs from 2001 to 2016 were $548 billion.
  • The estimated DOD base budget was $733 billion and veterans spending was $213 billion.
  • Interest incurred on borrowing for wars was $453 billion.
  • Estimated future costs for veterans' medical needs until the year 2053 is $1 trillion.
  • And the amounts the DOD, State Department, and Homeland Security have requested for 2017 ($103 billion).

Crawford carried out a similar study[PDF] in June 2014 that estimated the cost of war at $4.4 trillion.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by inertnet on Tuesday October 25 2016, @11:56AM

    by inertnet (4071) on Tuesday October 25 2016, @11:56AM (#418487) Journal

    I remember a documentary right after the Russians were kicked out, when an Afghan victoriously claimed that no foreign power had ever succeeded in conquering Afghanistan. What he didn't realize that even the name Afghanistan points to the fact that they've already been successfully conquered long ago, by an empire disguised as a religion. And he himself is a descendent from the victims of that takeover and all the generations in between were its slaves.

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  • (Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2016, @12:03PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 25 2016, @12:03PM (#418489)

    The religion came there through the khan's who used it because it made it easier to administrate an empire if everyone has the same belief in it.