'Costly failures': Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan cost UK taxpayers £30bn

[dipsydoodle]

£30bn would pay for… 1,464,000 more NHS nurses, 408,000 NHS consultants, 75% of the HS2 budget


The cost of Britain’s interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan has reached almost £30bn – or £1,000 for every taxpayer in the country, a respected defence think-tank claims.

As British forces prepare to pull out of Afghanistan, the Royal United Services Institute has calculated that the UK’s contribution to the US-led campaign in the country between 2006 and 2013 was £19.59bn. The cost of operations in Iraq between 2003 and 2009 was £9.56bn, the organisation added. The total bill does not include this year’s cost of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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On Iraq, it concludes that the US-led invasion and occupation led to many more deaths than would have been the case if Saddam Hussein had been contained rather than overthrown.

Most damningly, it concludes that policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic misjudged the ability of military might and money to effect change in countries with no history of democracy.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/costly-failures-wars-in-iraq-and-afghanistan-cost-uk-taxpayers-30bn-9442640.html

[Jeneral2885]

1. But bloggers

like Save the Royal Navy.org and ukarmedforcescommentary.blogspot.com/ want more and more defence spending....

Sarcasm. Idiots.