Cost of US wars since 9/11? At least $3.7 trillion and counting

[Better Believe It]

Cost of US wars since 9/11? At least $3.7 trillion, study finds
224,000 people have died directly from warfare and 7.8 million people have been displaced
by Daniel Trotta
June 29, 2011

When President Barack Obama cited cost as a reason to bring troops home from Afghanistan, he referred to a $1 trillion price tag for America's wars.

Staggering as it is, that figure grossly underestimates the total cost of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the U.S. Treasury and ignores more imposing costs yet to come, according to a study released on Wednesday.

The final bill will run at least $3.7 trillion and could reach as high as $4.4 trillion, according to the research project "Costs of War" by Brown University's Watson Institute for International Studies.

Those numbers will continue to soar when considering often overlooked costs such as long-term obligations to wounded veterans and projected war spending from 2012 through 2020. The estimates do not include at least $1 trillion more in interest payments coming due and many billions more in expenses that cannot be counted, according to the study.

Read the full article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/29-0

[Autumn]

1. Oh whats a difference of $2.7 trillion and counting

between fiends. It's only money, we can get that from somewhere in the budget.:shrug:


:sarcasm:


K/R

[yellowwood]

2. Nobody Seems to Care

It's interesting that this title has receives very litle attention here. Let somebody post something about a dead cat, and many would sympathize.
Still, the many dead military from these wars don't get much real attention. And money? People just don't understand.
Why don't more people realize that so many important domestic problems are affected by this money drain?

[Octafish]

3. K&R

And don't forget the dead, each an irreplaceable human being of infinite value.

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. George McGovern

I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.
George McGovern



Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime.
Ernest Hemingway



Patriots always talk of dying for their country and never of killing for their country.
Bertrand Russell



The basic problems facing the world today are not susceptible to a military solution.
John F. Kennedy



I'm sick of the waste, carnage, suffering and lies
by both sides...... Ichingcarpenter.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. But..but..consider all the benefits we've received for our money.

There's....well...and...never mind.

[Loge23]

5. Stealth deficit

The US deficit, according to my last click on the debt clock (www.usdebtclock.org), was $1.385T, with total debt being $14.46T.
Arguably, a much more sensible approach to 9-11 - you know, one that doesn't include suspending the Bill of Rights along with infinite warfare - would have resulted in a fairly robust surplus. One has to wonder what the response to the recession could have been with that surplus.
It has been speculated on these pages and elsewhere for quite some time now about the obvious decline of the American empire, American IQ, and the average American's attention span.
What else do we need to know?

All of the positive initiatives that could have been generated with $1,2,3, or 4 Trillion is replaced with a capital destroying cash inferno with absolutely no positive return whatsoever for the common good.