Report: Cost of Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Other Deployments Exceeds $8T; Estimated 900,000 Dead

As the 20th anniversary of 9/11 approaches, a study shows the massive cost of war in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other theaters in both dollars and lost lives.

Brown University’s Costs of War project reveals the cost since September 11, 2001 exceeds $8 trillion and that wars have directly killed an estimated 897,000 to 929,000 people.

The Boston Globe reported on the university’s project, which was launched in 2010 and is housed at Brown’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. The institute released updates on its massive database on Wednesday.

The Globe reported that the $8 trillion figure “includes the costs of veterans’ care through 2050, which is trillions higher than researchers previously estimated.”

The Globe reported on the budgetary and human costs of wars after the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.:

Researchers for the project reported direct war costs, which include all Department of Defense Overseas Contingency operations funding and State Department war expenditures, and counter-terror war-related costs such as increases to the Pentagon’s base budget, care for veterans to date and in the future, spending by the Department of Homeland Security, and interest payments on borrowing for these wars.

Of the approximately $8 trillion estimated costs of the wars, $2.3 trillion can be attributed to the war zones in Afghanistan and Pakistan, $2.1 trillion to the war zones in Iraq and Syria, and $355 billion was attributed to other war zones.

The total also includes $1.1 trillion of related spending by Homeland Security and an estimated $2.2 trillion earmarked for future veterans’ care, including future medical care and disability payments, over the next decades.

The estimates do not include money spent on humanitarian assistance and aid for economic development in Afghanistan and Iraq, future costs of interest payments on borrowed money to pay for wars after Fiscal Year 2023, or state and local spending for counter-terrorism and services for post-Sept. 11 veterans. – READ MORE