STUDY: True cost of U.S. war on terror is $5.6 trillion, 7,000 deaths

Neoconservatives, military Keynesians and the two-party cohorts must be thrilled by a new paper that highlights the true cost of the war on terror, which is now known as the overseas contingency operation.

According to a new study by Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affair, the war on terror will have cost the United States government $5.6 trillion between 2001 and 2018, equal to $23,000 per American taxpayer. This is far higher than the Pentagon’s war spending estimates of $1.5 trillion, or roughly $7,000 per individual.

Authored by Neta Crawford, what makes the “Cost of War Project” even more interesting is that these figures are “conservative.” The report states:

“This report has not included here state and local government expenses related to medical care of veterans and homeland security. Nor does this report calculate the macro economic costs of war for the US economy. And while this report discusses some of the ways that families bear the burden of caring for seriously veterans [sic], I have not added a value for the costs of their uncompensated care.”

In addition to dollars and cents, the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have also killed 7,000 Americans and wounded more than 52,000.

But Crawford points out that the study, either by Brown or the Pentagon, do not account for things like the loss of economic productivity.

“Each one of the nearly 7,000 US soldiers killed by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could be assigned a statistical value of human life — a dollar value to their deaths,” Crawford said. “The Costs of War Project has not estimated the economic impact on the United States economy — the loss of economic productivity — of the deaths and injuries of US service members due to the wars.”

This is sad.

As former Congressman Ron Paul said,

“We’re being taxed to blow up bridges in Iraq and rebuild them while ours at home are falling down.”

Unfortunately, the welfare-warfare state persists, and 10 months into the new administration, nothing seems to have changed. The Republicans are spending money and invading foreign land. The Democrats did the same thing.

Creatures from the black lagoon will remain until the U.S. declares bankruptcy.