Commentary: Restore GI Bill Benefits for Veterans with Career-Ending PTSD
July 12, 2017 The Military Times
This op ed mentions the Costs of War Project as showing the "disastrous effects of bad paper on veterans with PTSD."
In the News
Veterans with less than honorable discharges can now access emergency mental health care
July 5, 2017 The Day
On Wednesday, the Department of Veterans Affairs began offering urgent mental health care to former service members with other-than-honorable discharges. The article mentions a recent report from Brown's Watson Institute that shows other-than-honorable are on the rise.
How the Military Discards Injured Troops and Denies Them Veterans Benefits
June 29, 2017 The Fiscal Times
The Fiscal Times features the Costs of War Project's latest study on “bad paper” discharges, which "have grown from 5.5 percent during the Gulf War era to 6.5 percent since America went to war in Afghanistan and Iraq following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."
As the VA starts mental health care for ‘bad paper’ veterans, critics say it’s not enough
June 27, 2017
"The Department of Veterans Affairs announced Thursday that it would begin offering emergency mental health services starting July 5 to veterans with other-than-honorable discharges – following through on a departmental change that VA Secretary David Shulkin promised in March. The change acknowledges the population of veterans has been denied needed care, but it doesn’t go far enough, according to a report released last week from Brown University."
The Dangers of Arming Autocrats
June 13, 2017 The Atlantic
The Costs of War Project is mentioned in an article on arms sales to Saudi Arabia. "The Costs of War Project at Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs has found that 'clean energy and health care spending create 50 percent more jobs than the equivalent amount of spending on the military.'"
A Study the Defense Industry Will Hate
June 1, 2017 Defense One
"Remember how Lockheed Martin tried to save its F-22 with an ad campaign touting not stealth or supercruise, but American jobs? That pitch might not be any more effective the next time around. A new study from Brown University’s Costs of War project found domestic spending spurs more jobs than military spending."
Why Trump's Boost to Military Spending May Not Deliver 'Jobs, Jobs, Jobs'
May 31, 2017 The Fiscal Times
"The $54 billion increase in military funding that President Trump has proposed in his 2018 budget would create many more jobs if it were spent on areas like education, infrastructure and clean energy, according to a study released last week by the Costs of War Project at Brown University."
In Afghanistan, Trump is poised to re-escalate a hopeless war
May 12, 2017 The Atlantic
The Costs of War Project is referenced in this article on how few Americans are focused on the war in Afghanistan. "According to the Watson Institute at Brown University, the Afghan war has already cost the United States more than three-quarters of a trillion dollars."
A Military Surge Would Push U.S. War Costs in Afghanistan Over $2.16 Trillion
May 11, 2017 The Fiscal Times
Costs of War Co-Director Catherine Lutz tells the Fiscal Times about U.S. funds and corruption in the war in Afghanistan.
Ignoring the Costs of War
May 9, 2017 TomDispatch.com
William Hartung discusses the Costs of War Project at length in an analysis of the long-term price tag of ignoring the economic costs of the current U.S. wars.
Where Should DoD Be Spending Its Money?
April 19, 2017 Federal News Radio
Catherine Lutz, Costs of War Project Co-Director, speaks with Federal News Radio about the impacts of increasing military spending.
As Trump Pushes for Historic $54B Military Spending Hike, Which Programs Will He Cut to Pay for War?
February 28, 2017 Democracy Now
Neta Crawford, Co-Director of Costs of War, talks to Democracy Now! about President Trump's call for a historic increase in military spending.
Fact Check: Did the US Really Spend "Trillions and Trillions of Dollars" Overseas?
January 20, 2017 Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times fact-checked President Trump's speech by citing Watson's Cost of War project, which pegged the wars abroad at $4.79 trillion.
The fatal expense of American imperialism
November 4, 2016 The Boston Globe
"A more recent study, by the Cost of War Project at Brown University, puts the price tag at $4.7 trillion through 2016."
Where Is That Wasteful Government Spending?
October 20, 2016 History News Network
Taking these and other factors into account, a recent study at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs put the cost to U.S. taxpayers of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan at nearly $5 trillion thus far. According to the report’s author, Neta Crawford, this figure is “so large as to be almost incomprehensible.”
The $5 trillion wars
October 18, 2016 Boston Globe
"The most recent estimates suggest that war costs will run to nearly $5 trillion — a staggering sum that exceeds even the $3 trillion that Joseph Stiglitz and I predicted back in 2008.Yet the cost seems invisible to politicians and the public alike."
The frighteningly high human and financial costs of war
October 12, 2016 AlJazeera
"The Costs of War Project comprises 35 scholars, legal experts, human rights practitioners and physicians, and has been working since 2011 to document the full human, material, and political costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the related violence in Pakistan and Syria - and to ask for an official accounting. The project's findings show that over the past 15 years, US conflicts have cost more than 600,000 military and civilian lives, resulted in more than seven million refugees and displaced people, and run-up perhaps nearly $13 trillion in financial costs over the lifetimes of the conflicts."
After 15 years, Taliban still control as much Afghanistan area as when war started
October 7, 2016 Times of India
"These 15 years of war, preceded by 20 years of wars against the Soviet Union and between warlords has taken a devastating toll. A latest estimate of direct war related casualties by Neta Crawford says, professor at Boston University, some 111,000 people have died and 116,000 injured."
Fighting Terrorism With a Credit Card
September 12, 2016
"Since the 9/11 attacks, America has poured $3.2 trillion into its wars, according to anew study from Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs."
Report: Nearly $5 trillion and counting spent on Iraq and Afghanistan wars
September 12, 2016 Stars and Stripes
"The calculations by Dr. Neta Crawford extend beyond the typical accounting of overseas contingency operations for the Defense and State Departments, which amounts to $1.7 trillion through 2016, according to her report issued late last week."