Posted on 11/25/2018 6:26:22 PM PST by robowombat
The United States has appropriated and is obligated to spend an estimated $5.9 trillion (in current dollars) on the war on terror through Fiscal Year 2019, including direct war and war-related spending and obligations for future spending on post- 9/11 war veterans.This number differs substantially from the Pentagon’s estimates of the costs of the post-9/11 wars because it includes not only war
appropriations made to the Department of Defense – spending in the war zones of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in other places the government designates as sites of “overseas contingency operations,” – but also includes spending across the federal government that is a consequence of these wars.
Specifically, this is war-related spending by the Department of State, past and obligated spending for war veterans’ care, interest on the debt incurred to pay for the wars, and the prevention of and response to terrorism by the Department of Homeland Security.
If the US continues on its current path, war spending will continue to grow. The Pentagon currently projects $80 billion in Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) spending through FY2023. Even if the wars are ended by 2023, the US would still be on track to spend an additional $808 billion (see Table 2) to total at least $6.7 trillion, not including future interest costs. Moreover, the costs of war will likely be greater than this because, unless the US immediately ends its deployments, the number of veterans associated with the post-9/11 wars will also grow. Veterans benefits and disability spending, and the cost of interest on borrowing to pay for the wars, will comprise an increasingly large share of the costs of the US post-9/11 wars.
Sadly, we engaged in only Retail jihadi execution.
And what would have been the cost of rebuilding after another terror attack, not to mention the lives lost?
The war on terror is worth it, and it is necessary, however much it may cost.
And what do we have to show for it?
How much did we spend overthowing Gadaffi?
You think Wholesale would be better? It might upset some people …. /s
We have not won a war since WWII......When civilians run the wars we loose...
“And what do we have to show for it?”
Nothing. Not a damned thing. Just more ragheads in this country.
The human cost kills me more. Glad to knock off bin Ladin and all, but...
And none of this includes the costs to out society and economy of slowed air travel and things like “white powder hysteria,” and all the state and county government buildings and facilities ratcheted down tight with metal detectors and guard at the doors
This report far understates the negative costs of both these interminable wars and the price of Arab Spring which created the Syrian Civil War and the NATO war on Qaddafi.
The effect of the 8 years of G W Bush and the 8 years of Obama is to leave an arc of shattered states and disrupted societies from Libya to Afghanistan. The US armed forces rank and file paid the price for this series of disasters concocted by the Beltway Wizards of Smart and the permanent government. Since the blood is on the hands of both political parties there has been little analysis on the regional effects of this series of operations. Other than the initial disruption of the AlQuadi and their allies the Taliban regime I see little if any value to this country for these operations and they have created a world of woe for the populations of Libya, Syria and Iraq.
It’s a shame the previous Administration and its party were so Muslim Brotherhood friendly and tried to import as much Islam into the West as possible through destabilization of the near East.
When Democrats cut from the mold of LBJ run wars you mean.
What’s missing is the support of other countries for these costs.
IE: A very small reduction in the yield of US Treasuries dwarfs these costs.
“Who is payeing?” is a difficult question to answer- who is paying for Russia’s sortie in Syria?
Good info in the article though.
I asked my Lt. Col. (Ret.) Brother in Law (two tours, Iraq, PH, especially the Anbar Awakening, in which he was instrumental, etc) whether Iraq was “worth it.”
He said, “Yes.”
I would be interested in having him expand on that.
We can’t disengage from the world and we have to fight back when attacked. We just need to be smarter about it and spend far less money doing it.
Certainly the portion of the money spent on Powell’s “we break it we fix it” should not be spent. It should be ... “we break it THEY fix it”.
I agree. Well said.
“I asked my Lt. Col. (Ret.) Brother in Law (two tours, Iraq, PH, especially the Anbar Awakening, in which he was instrumental, etc) whether Iraq was “worth it.”
He said, “Yes.””
Funny you say that - I also tried to contact Pat Tillman to see if foregoing a lucrative professional career to join the Army in the ME was ‘worth it’ too. What a coincidence!
Unfortunately he was unavailable for comment.
A professional football career, that is.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.