Iraq and Afghan wars are “the most expensive wars in US history”

A 21-page report from Harvard University has dubbed the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq “the most expensive wars in US history”, claiming the country has already spent $2 trillion on special operations in the regions and will have to spend much more in decades ahead on medical care and disability benefits to veterans. The total war costs could amount to $6 trillion or $75,000 for every household in America, the report says.

“The US has already spent close to $2 trillion in direct outlays for expenses related to Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation New Dawn (OND),” said the report released under the title “The Financial Legacy of Iraq and Afghanistan: How Wartime Spending Decisions Will Constrain Future National Security Budgets”, according to The  Voice of Russia, RT, The Telegraph, The Washington Post

Because of the conflicts the country entered into under the George W. Bush administration in 2001 and 2003, the future federal budgets will be under a heavy financial burden, the report claims. Mainly due to the obligation to pay out benefits to an estimated 2.5 million veterans, the Linda J. Bilmes, a public policy professor, explains in the report.

 “Payments to Vietnam and first Gulf War veterans are still climbing,” Bilmes recalls a similar historical fact as cited by a US media.

In 2001 in an effort to expand the US Military ranks prior to the Iraq war, Washington had increased military benefits. This decision and the nation-building initiatives endorsed by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan will generate expenses for years to come, Bilmes notes as cited by a US mass media.

An earlier study performed in 2011 by Brown University’s Eisenhower Research Project estimated the total war costs at $4 trillion.

Another side of the wars is human costs. The estimates are that some 300,000 people have died directly from the warfare, including approximately 125,000 civilians in Iraq.

M.D