US Budgetary Costs of Wars through 2016: $4.79 Trillion and Counting

  1               US  Budgetary  Costs  of  Wars  through  2016:  $4.79  Trillion  and  Counting   Summary  of  Costs  of  the  US  Wars  in  Iraq,  Syria,  Afghanistan  and  Pakistan  and   Homeland  Security1     Neta  C.  Crawford2   Boston  University... More

  1               US  Budgetary  Costs  of  Wars  through  2016:  $4.79  Trillion  and  Counting   Summary  of  Costs  of  the  US  Wars  in  Iraq,  Syria,  Afghanistan  and  Pakistan  and   Homeland  Security1     Neta  C.  Crawford2   Boston  University       September  2016       Summary     Wars  cost  money  before,  during  and  after  they  occur  —  as  governments  prepare  for,   wage,  and  recover  from  them  by  replacing  equipment,  caring  for  the  wounded  and  repairing   the  infrastructure  destroyed  in  the  fighting.    Although  it  is  rare  to  have  a  precise  accounting  of   the  costs  of  war  —  especially  of  long  wars  —  one  can  get  a  sense  of  the  rough  scale  of  the  costs   by  surveying  the  major  categories  of  spending.       As   of   August   2016,   the   US   has   already   appropriated,   spent,   or   taken   on   obligations   to   spend   more   than   $3.6   trillion   in   current   dollars   on   the   wars   in   Ira Less