USA 2020 Elections: Thread

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Thu Aug 26 22:39:41 PDT 2021


https://news.antiwar.com/2021/08/25/new-report-finds-us-has-spent-over-2-3-trillion-on-afghanistan-war/
https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/figures/2021/human-and-budgetary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022

New Report Finds US Has Spent Over $2.3 Trillion On Afghanistan War

Authored by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

Brown University’s Costs of War project released an updated report
Wednesday on US spending for the war in Afghanistan. The report found
that since the 2001 invasion, Washington has sunk over $2.3 trillion
into the war.

The spending includes operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and
is broken down into five categories. The biggest chunk is the Defense
Department’s budget for the war, which is just over $1 trillion. The
State Department’s war budget adds another $60 billion. War-related
Increases to the Pentagon budget account for $433 billion.

Estimated interest payments on war borrowing accounts for $532
billion, and spending on care for veterans of the war adds up to $233
billion. Costs of War did not account for future interest payments or
future spending on lifelong care for veterans, so the total will still
increase even after the US completes its military withdrawal from
Afghanistan.

Costs of War released its last Afghanistan update in April 2021. At
the time, the project estimated the war cost $2.26 trillion. The
project also tracks casualties of the war. As of April, Costs of War
estimates up to 241,000 people were killed in the war in Afghanistan
and Pakistan.

Out of the 241,000 people killed, 71,344 were civilians, including
47,245 in Afghanistan and 24,099 in Pakistan. The numbers do not
account for indirect deaths due to conditions caused by the war, like
loss of access to food, disease, or infrastructure damage.

The Taliban take over of Afghanistan and the swift collapse of the
US-backed government shows that the massive amount of spending was for
nothing, except to line the pockets of US defense contractors.


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