Summary of Findings

Some of the Costs of War Project’s main findings include:

Recent Findings:

• U.S.-backed Israeli military operations since Oct. 7, 2023 will lead to far higher indirect death than direct death rates.

• U.S. spending on aid for Israeli military operations in Gaza and elsewhere between Oct. 7, 2023 – Oct. 7, 2024 is over $17.9 billion. Spending on related U.S. operations in the region is over $4.86 billion

• Over the course of the war in Afghanistan (2001-2021), 24% of U.S. women service members and 1.9% of men experienced sexual assault.

• War contributes significantly to climate change: The U.S. Defense Department is one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters.

• The “Military-Industrial Complex” is enmeshed with Silicon Valley. A growing portion of the Defense Department’s spending goes to large tech firms.

United States Post-9/11 Wars:

• The U.S. government is conducting counterterror activities in 78 countries.

• At least 940,000 people have died due to direct war violence, including civilians, armed forces on all sides, contractors, journalists, and humanitarian workers.  

• An estimated 3.6-3.8 million people have died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, bringing the total death toll to at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting.

• 38 million people have been displaced by the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and the Philippines.

• The wars have been accompanied by erosions in civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad.

• The cost of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and elsewhere totals about $8 trillion. This does not include future interest costs on borrowing for the wars.

• The ripple effects on the U.S. economy have also been significant, including job loss and interest rate increases.

• The costs of caring for post-9/11 war vets will reach between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion by 2050 – most of which has not yet been paid.

• U.S. policymakers scarcely considered alternatives to war in the aftermath of 9/11 or in debating the invasion of Iraq. Many of those alternatives are still available.

• Post-9/11 war veterans are suffering a mental health crisis. At least four times as many active duty personnel and war veterans of post-9/11 conflicts have died of suicide than in combat.