By Cliff Montgomery – Aug. 11th, 2010
The so-called “war on terrorism” is the most costly military engagement in American history, with over onetrillion dollars appropriated for operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world.
Perhaps that is inevitable. This “war” frankly is an ill-defined engagement, fought against a battle tactic ratherthan against a single, clearly defined enemy. Such a scheme practically invites open-scale endeavors devoid ofeither a timeframe or a definite purpose.
Though to be fair, this war is the most expensive in absolute terms. After one corrects for inflation it is thesecond most costly U.S. military engagement, after World War II.
A recent study from the Congressional Research Service (CRS) provided cost estimates of all major Americanwars, from the Revolution ($2.4 billion, after adjusted for inflation) to World War I ($334 billion), and onward toWorld War II ($4.1 trillion) and finally the fruitless nation-building of Iraq ($784 billion) and the war inAfghanistan ($321 billion).
CRS provided its war cost estimates both in constant year dollars (that is, costs adjusted for inflation), and incurrent year dollars (or costs at the time the dollars were spent).
“The report also provides estimates of the cost of each war as a share of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)during the peak year of each conflict,” stated the report, “and of overall defense spending as a share of GDPat the peak [of hostilities].”
But with such massive estimates over such a large time span, it’s inevitable that caveats would exist. It’s amatter that’s tackled in this study.
World War II still is the most expensive U.S. war in constant dollars. That engagement cost a huge 35.8% ofGDP during its peak year, and cost a staggering $4.1 trillion in federal Fiscal Year 2011 dollars.
