Post-9/11 War Costs Approaching $6 Trillion

Spending associated with U.S. military operations since Sept. 11, 2001, is on track to reach $5.9 trillion by 2019, according to a new report from Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. The study, a part of the Costs of War project, also noted that the U.S. is involved in counterterrorism operations in 76 countries but that without any exit strategies in sight, global security is at risk.

The study estimated that the Department of Defense will have spent $822 billion in Iraq since 2003 and $975 billion in Afghanistan since 2001. The U.S. is on track to spend an additional $808 billion across all military operations by 2023 for a cumulative cost of $6.7 trillion.

“In sum, high costs in war and war-related spending pose a national security concern because they are unsustainable,” wrote the study’s author, Neta C. Crawford, a professor of political science at Brown. “The public would be better served by increased transparency and by the development of a comprehensive strategy to end the wars and deal with other urgent national security priorities,” she added.

A large military budget stands in direct opposition to fighting climate change, the study argues, because money that goes to the Department of Defense—which uses more oil and petroleum products than any other entity in the world—would be better allocated toward the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, operations overseen by the Pentagon released an average of 44 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year between 2010 and 2015. Additionally, during that same period, the Pentagon purchased 102 million barrels of fuel per year, on average.

To arrive at the total cost of $5.9 trillion, Crawford tallied spending by the Department of Defense, the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security as well as national costs associated with health and disability care for veterans, interest on military debt and anti-terrorism initiatives.

“The fact that the US keeps spending huge sums for wars that, at least in Afghanistan, are in a stalemate, and in Iraq and Syria, are unresolved, is a long-term budgetary problem which will affect future generations,” Crawford wrote.