Direct spending by US government on Afghan and Iraq wars

The daily Internet, TV, radio program, Democracy Now, included the following item on its list of "headlines" today, June 1, 2010. See the full array of headlines and the featured topic of the program at: http://www.democracynow.org. The figures cited in the headline are incomplete. For example, they do not include the benefits for discharged soldiers or for those who need long-term, sometimes life-time, medical care and financial support. Check out Joseph E. Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes book, The Three Trillion Dollar War, to get a better idea of the full costs of the Iraq War - and implicitly the Afghan War. Nonetheless, the figures, along with other related sources, document that the costs of these two wars, with the costs increasing for the Afghan war and occupation, are adding greatly to the financial burden of US citizens and to the soaring national debt.

US Spending on Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan Tops $1 Trillion

And the amount of money spent on the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq has now surpassed the $1 trillion mark. The National Priorities Project Cost of War counter says the milestone was reached Sunday morning. To date over $747 billion has been appropriated for the war in Iraq and $299 billion for the war in Afghanistan. The US is spending over $136 billion on the wars this year.