By Cliff Montgomery – Apr. 10th, 2010
The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have cost the American taxpayer $1.05 trillion–so far. That’s the verdict of the National Priorities Project (NPP), which bases its numbers on the total amounts approved for both conflicts through Fiscal Year 2010.
The NPP “is a 501(c)(3) research organization that analyzes and clarifies federal data so that people can understand and influence how their tax dollars are spent,” according to its mission statement.
The war appropriations for this fiscal year do not include the necessary dollars to support Obama’s “surge” of 30,000 more soldiers for Afghanistan. It’s a plan he announced on December 1st, 2009.
The most basic estimates suggest the Afghanistan surge will cost about $30 billion. NPP anticipates a call for supplemental appropriations later this year.
The NPP has created a ‘Cost of War’ website, which helps to put this spending into greater perspective. The introductory page displays an up-to-the-present-moment “Total Cost of Wars Since 2001” counter, which reveals the speed at which the U.S. government is spending its allocated war funds. Similar counters display the cost of the fruitless nation-building of Iraq, as well as the war in Afghanistan.
Other counters–which anyone can access via the introductory page–display the total cost Per Household, Per Person and Per Taxpayer.
