Your Grandchildren’s Children’s War

The Three Trillion Dollar War

According to a new book by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes, the true costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will total more than $3 trillion. President Bush has endeavored to hide the costs of the wars by financing them outside of the federal budget, thereby funding them through debt. But Stiglitz and Bilmes argue that the true costs of these wars are wildly underestimated. They consider all factors associated with the waging of these wars including interest on the debt, future borrowing to cover costs, the ongoing costs of a military presence and the staggering costs of lifetime health-care and mental health services for veterans.

In spite of the administration’s misleading pledge of a “self-financing” war, the reported spending on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, to date, total $646 billion, all of which is financed through debt. In addition to these direct costs of the war, Stiglitz and Bilmes estimate that future costs for veterans including social security, disability and medical care will add up to a staggering $717 billion in the long-term.

Additional costs that are not reported as war costs are the death benefits that are paid to families of soldiers killed in action. According to the authors, the US pays each family a $100,000 death gratuity and a $400,000 payment in lieu of insurance for an unexpected death. To date there have been over 4,400 combat deaths, totaling $2.2 billion.

Other hidden costs for the military include recruitment, combat pay, hardship benefits and reenlistment bonuses. According to the authors, “the average number of military personnel deployed to the region in any given period has grown by 15 per cent – but the costs have skyrocketed by 130 per cent. Similarly, the intensity of operations is estimated to have risen by 65 per cent during the period – half the rate of the cost increases.

The authors also point to the increased use of private contractors providing support services for the troops as another factor driving up costs. Currently there are more than 100,000 private contractors, who, according to the authors, are “increasing operational expenses far more than if we had relied solely on the military.”

The Three Trillion Dollar War: The True Cost of the Iraq Conflict
By Joseph Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes
W.W.Norton and Co., Inc. 2008