Price tag of the ‘war on terror’ will top $6 trillion soon
November 14, 2018 in News by RBN Staff
Source: Military Times |
A solider assigned to Bravo Battery, Field Artillery Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment, pulls the lanyard to fire a an M777A2 howitzer at Firebase Saham in Iraq on Oct. 24, 2018. A new report estimates the cost of the “war on terror” so far to be approaching $6 billion. (Spc. Gyasi Thomasson/Army)
WASHINGTON — 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.
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DoD: Afghanistan operations could hit 22 years ― but don’t call it a permanent presence
US forces, diplomats there for forseeable future, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says.
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.”
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VA secretary expects fiscal 2020 budget to be the biggest ever
Trump wants a 5 percent spending cut for every department next year, but his top veterans’ official expects Congress to add the money back in.
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.
