From: William Gladys <william.gladys@tiscali.co.uk>
Date: Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 6:35 PM
Subject: Fw: The true cost of the war on terror: $3.7trillion and counting... and up to 258,000 lives
To: world_Politics@googlegroups.com
258,000 wasted lives, although shocking is probably a conservative estimate. William Gladys.
The true cost of the war on terror: $3.7trillion and counting… and up to 258,000 lives
Last updated at 12:42 PM on 29th June 2011
The cost of U.S. military action in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan will run to at least $3.7trillion, a study has revealed today.
The staggering figure could reach as high as $4.4trillion, with the deaths of up to 258,000 people, according to research by Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.
In human terms, 224,000 to 258,000 people have died directly from warfare - including 125,000 civilians in Iraq.
Ultimate price: Tammy O'Brien kisses her son Marine Lance Corporal Nicholas' coffin at Arlington National Cemetery, Virginia. A study has estimated the cost of U.S. conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan at least $3.7trillion
Many more have died indirectly, from the loss of clean drinking water, health care and nutrition.
Another 365,000 have been wounded and 7.8million - the combined population of Connecticut and Kentucky - have been displaced.
In the 10 years since U.S. troops went into Afghanistan to root out the Al Qaeda leaders behind the September 11, 2001, attacks, spending on the conflicts totalled up to $2.7 trillion.
Those numbers will continue to soar when considering often overlooked costs including obligations to wounded veterans and projected war spending from 2012 through 2020.
They also do not include at least $1trillion in interest payments and expenses.
High cost: A study by Brown University has said up to 258,000 people have been killed in the conflicts - many of them civilians
The study, 'Costs of War', brought together more than 20 academics to uncover the expenses of war.
It underlines the extent to which war will continue to stretch the U.S. federal budget and questions what has been gained from the massive investment.
Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, said: 'I hope that when we look back, whenever this ends, something very good has come out of it.'
Catherine Lutz, head of the anthropology department at Brown and co-director of the study, said: 'We decided we needed to do this kind of rigorous assessment of what it cost to make those choices to go to war.
'Politicians, we assumed, were not going to do that kind of assessment.'
Stretched: Soldiers from Viper Company stand next to a blackhawk helicopter in Khost. President Obama last week announced plans for early troop withdrawal from Afghanistan
Cutting back: President Obama referred to a $1trillion price tag for U.S. warfare - but that figure is closer to $4trillion
President Barack Obama, who earlier this month announced plans for an early withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, referred to a $1trillion price tag for U.S. wars.
The report comes as Congress debates how to cut a U.S. deficit projected at $1.4trillion this year - a 10th of which can be attributed to war spending.
U.S. conflicts have resulted in the deaths of Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, but Iraq and Afghanistan are from stable democracies.
Iran has gained influence in the Gulf and the Taliban, though ousted from government, remains a viable military force in Afghanistan.
George Friedman, founder of intelligence company STRATFOR, said: 'The U.S. has been extremely successful in protecting the homeland.
'Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was capable of mounting very sophisticated, complex operations on an intercontinental basis.
'That organisation with that capability has not only been substantially reduced, it seems to have been shattered.'
War spending may also have added a half percentage point to GDP growth, but that has been offset by the negative effects of deficit spending, the report concludes.
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Palash Biswas
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