Costs of War

The Iraq War has been one of the most expensive in history in terms of money, lives, injuries, time, and emotional energy. End Iraq War Now.org has researched the costs and will update this page as they change.

Last updated: 4/27/2007

US Casualties  

Source: http://icasualties.org/oif/

Iraqi Casualties
- Over 2 million refugees have fled to other countries.
- Over 62,570 Iraqi civilians have been killed.

Source: http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

Financial Costs

While difficult to give you an exact number we can provide relevant facts and an estimate of money spent on Iraq to date and what it will cost if we continue on the current course.
- To date we have spent $503 billion on funding wars with Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Iraq is by far where the majority of this money is spent. Let's say 75%.
- Including the Bush administration's requests for 2007 and 2008 the total war funding will be $746 billion.

Given these assumptions:
- We've spent $503 x 0.75 = $377 billion on Iraq to date.
- We will spend $746 x 0.75 = $560 billion on Iraq through 2008 unless we change course now.
- There's $560 - $377 = $183 billion on the line that we can invest more intelligently elsewhere.

Source: Congressional Budget Office

Other Financial Costs:
- Maintenance and replacement of military equipment negatively effected by the harsh desert environment and extreme use.
- Higher recruiting costs caused by an unpopular war where the chances of dying or getting wounded are high.
- The present value Veterans disability benefit costs may be between $300-600 billion.
        - 1.4 million troops have served in Iraq and Afghanistan to date.
        - Approximately 40% of those will draw some type of disability pay.

Source: Robert J. Samuelson, Newsweek, p. 51, March 5, 2007

Including these additional financial costs End Iraq War Now.org estimates the current financial cost of the Iraq War at one trillion dollars ($1,000 billion dollars). That's an amazing amount of money to spend for no true benefits.

Other Costs

Just like a person the nation has a psyche. The Iraq War has had a negative effect on the national psyche. There's an incalculable cost to reading about death and destruction on a daily basis. The amount of energy spent reporting on the Iraq War by the media could have been better invested in stories more relevant to our national interest like how to solve key domestic problems. Our leaders only have so much time in a day and over the past four years a la rg e percentage of that time has been devoted to considering, debating, and voting on issues related to the Iraq War. This time could have been better spent on issues more relevant to the people of the United States of America and improving their lives at home.

Costs like these are intangible but any reasonable person can quickly intuit that they are extremely large. When was the last time you opened the paper or turned on the TV without reading or watching something awful happening in Iraq? Beyond the opportunity cost all this negative news is no fun for America to deal with for years and years. We're a competitive nation that values growth, progress, optimism, independence and success; not drawn out wars with no benefits.