NEW: Cost of U.S. War on Terror Stands at $6.4 Trillion & 801K Lives, Says New Brown Report

NEW: Cost of U.S. War on Terror Stands at $6.4 Trillion & 801K Lives, Says New Brown Report

The estimated cost of America’s war on terrorism stands at $6.4 trillion and 801,000 lives, according to a report released by the Costs of War project at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

“The numbers continue to accelerate, not only because many wars continue to be waged, but also because wars don’t end when soldiers come home. These reports provide a reminder that even if fewer soldiers are dying and the U.S. is spending a little less on the immediate costs of war today, the financial impact is still as bad as, or worse than, it was 10 years ago. We will still be paying the bill for these wars on terror into the 22nd century,” said Catherine Lutz, co-director of Costs of War.

Read the Report Here

The Report

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According to the report, since late 2001, the United States has appropriated and is obligated to spend $6.4 trillion on counterterrorism efforts through the end of 2020.

An estimated $5.4 trillion of that total has funded, and will continue to fund, counterterrorism wars and smaller operations in over 80 countries; an additional minimum of $1 trillion will provide care for veterans of those wars through the next several decades.

The report also estimates that between 770,000 and 801,000 people have died in post-9/11 wars.

The total estimate includes civilian deaths — some 312,000 or more — as well as deaths of opposition fighters (more than 250,000), members of the U.S. military (7,014) and journalists and humanitarian workers (1,343).

Costs of War Project

This month’s new report is among the first to be published in the Costs of War project’s “20 Years of War” series.

The Costs of War project, a joint effort between Brown’s Watson Institute and Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future, was launched in 2011 with the goal of comprehensively documenting the costs of the United States’ counterterrorism wars in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

All three of the Costs of War co-directors — Lutz,  Neta Crawford, and Watson Institute Senior Research Associate Stephanie Savell— kicked off the “20 Years of War” series with a visit to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, November 13, where they presented their latest findings to the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services and an international pool of journalists.