The $1.3 Trillion War
Linda Bilmes, a Commerce Department assistant secretary from 1999-2001 who teaches budgeting and public finance at Harvard, estimates that
if the American military presence in [Iraq] lasts another five years, the total outlay for the war could stretch to more than $1.3 trillion, or $11,300 for every household in the United States.
See a graphical representation of Bilmes' math here; her column here. Key section:
But the biggest long-term costs are disability and health payments for returning troops, which will be incurred even if hostilities were to stop tomorrow. The United States currently pays more than $2 billion in disability claims per year for 159,000 veterans of the 1991 gulf war, even though that conflict lasted only five weeks, with 148 dead and 467 wounded. Even assuming that the 525,000 American troops who have so far served in Iraq and Afghanistan will require treatment only on the same scale as their predecessors from the gulf war, these payments are likely to run at $7 billion a year for the next 45 years.
$1.3 trillion is more than the annual GDP of Canada, Mexico, Spain and 217 other countries. (Bilmes link via Anti-War.com.)
