The insecurity that refugees and internally displaced people (IDPs) face extends far beyond the guns and blasts of 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. Forced displacement, especially...
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....
People in war zones are killed in their homes, in markets, and on roadways, by bombs, bullets, fire, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and drones. Civilians die at checkpoints, as they are run off the road by military vehicles, when they step on mines or cluster bombs, as they collect wood or...
Over 7,000 U.S. service members died in post-9/11 war zones including Afghanistan and Iraq. Approximately 177,000 allies in the national military and police from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria died. Western allies such as the U.K., Germany, and Canada also have borne significant human...
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...
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...
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....
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...
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, ...
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....
Since late 2001, the United States has appropriated and is obligated to spend an estimated $8 trillion through Fiscal Year 2022 in budgetary costs related to and caused by the post-9/11 wars — an estimated $5.8 trillion in appropriations in current dollars and an additional minimum of $2.2 trill...
U.S. policymakers scarcely considered alternatives to war in the aftermath of 9/11 or in debating the invasion of Iraq. Some of those alternative paradigms for addressing the problem of terror attacks are still available to the U.S....
The U.S. budgetary costs of the war in Afghanistan from FY2001-FY2022 totaled over 2.3 trillion dollars. The estimated U.S. budgetary costs of the wars in Iraq and Syria from FY2003-FY2023 totaled 2.9 trillion dollars....
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 Iraq and Afghanistan wars have contributed to significant economic setbacks in the United States, through lost opportunities for investment in public infrastructure and services and higher borrowing rates. Contrary to the widespread belief that war is a particularly effective way to create j...