US wars to cost $4 trillion, report finds

The Department of War (aka, the Pentagon) Did they ever figure out what hit it?

A new report out of Brown University estimates that the U.S. wars in Afghanistan and Iraq--together with the counterinsurgency efforts in Pakistan--will, all told, cost $4 trillion and leave 225,000 dead, both civilians and soldiers.

Afghanistan is the Land of the Buddha, the original Kapilavastu, with the largest statues in the world. But archeologists are not likely to uncover its wonders before Chinese mining interests destroy artifacts in Mes Aynak and elsewhere.

• Rescuing Afghanistan's Buddhist history (WSJ)

The group of economists, anthropologists, lawyers, humanitarian personnel, and political scientists involved in the project estimated that the cost of caring for the veterans injured in the wars will reach $1 trillion in 30 or 40 years.

In estimating the $4 trillion total, they did not take into account the $5.3 billion in reconstruction spending the government has promised Afghanistan, state and local contributions to veteran care, interest payments on war debt, or the costs of Medicare for veterans when they reach 65.

Elite warriors, each costing $1,000,000/year, needed to defeat Iron Age pastoralists? (veteranstoday.com)

The Congressional Budget Office, meanwhile, has assessed the federal price tag for the wars at $1.8 trillion through 2021. The report says that is a gross underestimate, predicting that the government has already paid $2.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion. More

Shocking release of U.S. documents on Afghanistan
WASHINGTON, D.C. (CNN) – The Afghan government said Monday it was “shocked” as it sifted through tens of thousands of leaked U.S. military and diplomatic reports on the war in Afghanistan that a whistleblower website posted a day earlier. “The Afghan government is shocked with the report that has opened the reality of the Afghan war,” said Siamak Herawi, a government spokesman. WikiLeaks.org -- a whistleblower website...

• The preposterous war on Afghanistan
• What did USSR want with this ancient part of NW India?
• The price tag of Afghanistan dwarfs country's GDP