Monday, May 02, 2011
The United States is spending less these days on its overseas wars, compared to the peak period a few years ago. But that doesn’t mean the cost of continuing combat operations isn’t absorbing a tremendous amount of money.
Not including the normal defense budget, funding for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will pass $1.4 trillion in the coming year. Since September 11, 2001, war spending peaked in 2008 at $186 billion. The following year, combined spending for Afghanistan and Iraq dipped to $155 billion, before rising up to $165 billion in 2010 and $168 in 2011.
Now, it’s “really” down—to $131.6 billion—for 2012. That averages out to about $360 million a day…or $250,000 a minute.
Although the Iraq War has absorbed more money than the Afghanistan War—$823 billion to $557 billion—Afghanistan overtook Iraq in FY 2010 and currently accounts for 86% of U.S. war spending.
VA medical care has gone up four years in a row and now costs $3 billion a year.
-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky
The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on Terror Operations Since 9/11 (by Amy Belasco, Congressional Research Service) (pdf)
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