Since 2001, between 1.9 and 3 million service members have served in post-9/11 war operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many have been wounded or injured, and suffer from conditions ranging from brain injuries to hearing loss. From FY2001 to FY2020, federal spending on veteran care doubled from ...
After launching the post-9/11 wars, the Bush Administration labeled detained persons as “unlawful enemy combatants” — rather than “prisoners of war” — in an attempt to circumvent United States legal obligations under the Geneva Conventions and other international treaties, as well as U.S....
Since 2001, between 1.9 and 3 million service members have served in post-9/11 war operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and over half of them have deployed more than once. Many times that number of Americans have borne the costs of war as spouses, parents, children, and friends cope with their...
The number of United States troops who have died fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan had passed 7,000 at the end of 2019. Approximately 177,000 national military and police from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraqi, and Syria allies have died. Western allies have also borne high human costs. They ...
In the early years of Saddam Hussein’s regime, the Iraqi education system was well resourced, globally connected, secular, and open to women. The near collapse of Iraq’s education system began with the international sanctions regime of the 1990s and culminated with the United States invasion of ...
The insecurity that refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) face extends far beyond the guns and blasts of the war. It includes lack of access to food, health care, housing, employment, and clean water and sanitation, as well as loss of community and homes....
Each year since the beginning of the U.S.-led post-9/11 wars, Congress has appropriated money for international assistance, including to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. The popular understanding of international assistance programs is that they deliver immediate needed disaster relief, or...
At least 940,000 people have been killed by direct war violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, and Pakistan. The number of people who have been wounded or have fallen ill as a result of the conflicts is far higher, as is the number of civilians who have died indirectly as a result of the d...
Large defense contractors have played a central role in fighting the post-9/11 wars. They have provided workers who have engaged in direct combat and provided supplies, logistical services, and arms to coalition forces and the new Iraqi and Afghan governments. Private contracting has grown to...
The U.S. Department of Defense is the world’s single largest institutional consumer of oil – and as a result, one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters. The wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have had a serious impact on the natural environments of these countries. Military vehicles co...
No one knows with certainty how many people have been killed and wounded in Iraq since the 2003 United States invasion. However, we know that between 280,771-315,190 have died from direct war related violence caused by the U.S., its allies, the Iraqi military and police, and opposition forces...
The post-9/11 wars have had many budgetary consequences that the Costs of War project has not yet fully assessed. Budget estimates do not include: The opportunity costs of the U.S. choice to pay for war rather than other social investments, like public health Some expenses related to veterans, ...
As in every war, in Iraq and Afghanistan the wounded are far more numerous than those killed. Common combat injuries include second and third degree burns, broken bones, shrapnel wounds, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, nerve damage, paralysis, loss of sight and hearing, post-traumatic...
In the years following 9/11, human rights and civil liberties activists have voiced major concerns about the United States government and its allies’ treatment of terror suspects and ordinary U.S. citizens....
Over 7,000 U.S. service members have died in the post-9/11 warzones of Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and elsewhere. Their deaths have affected a large community of parents, spouses, children, siblings, and friends. Afghan, Iraqi, and other allied military and police deaths have been even more ex...
Through Fiscal Year 2022, the United States federal government has spent and obligated $8 trillion dollars on the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and elsewhere. This figure includes: direct Congressional war appropriations; war-related increases to the Pentagon base budget; veteran...
The U.S. post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, and Pakistan have taken a tremendous human toll on those countries. As of September 2021, an estimated 432,093 civilians in these countries have died violent deaths as a result of the wars. As of May 2023, an estimated 3.6-3.8 million...