Costs of War Project – Sep 2021

MILITARISM, 6 Sep 2021

Watson Institute | Brown University – TRANSCEND Media Service

1 Sep 2021 – Summary of Findings:

• At least 801,000 people have died due to direct war violence, including armed forces on all sides of the conflicts, contractors, civilians, journalists, and humanitarian workers.
• Many times more have died indirectly in these wars, due to ripple effects like malnutrition, damaged infrastructure, and environmental degradation.
• Over 335,000 civilians have been killed in direct violence by all parties to these conflicts.
• Over 7,000 US soldiers have died in the wars.
• We do not know the full extent of how many US service members returning from these wars became injured or ill while deployed.
• Many deaths and injuries among US contractors have not been reported as required by law, but it is likely that approximately 8,000 have been killed.
• 37 million people have been displaced by the post-9/11 wars in Afghanstan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and the Philippines.
• The US government is conducting counterterror activities in 85 countries, vastly expanding this war across the globe.

• The post-9/11 wars have contributed significantly to climate change. The Defense Department is one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters.

• The wars have been accompanied by erosions in civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad.
• The human and economic costs of these wars will continue for decades with some costs, such as the financial costs of US veterans’ care, not peaking until mid-century.
• Most US government funding of reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan has gone towards arming security forces in both countries. Much of the money allocated to humanitarian relief and rebuilding civil society has been lost to fraud, waste, and abuse.
• The cost of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and elsewhere totals about $6.4 trillion. This does not include future interest costs on borrowing for the wars.
• The ripple effects on the US economy have also been significant, including job loss and interest rate increases.
• Compelling alternatives to war were scarcely considered in the aftermath of 9/11 or in the discussion about war against Iraq. Some of those alternatives are still available to the US.

TO READ FULL REPORT Go to Original – brown.edu

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