The Cost of Endless War

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The U.S is on track to spend $886 billion on national defense this year.

That’s more than half the discretionary budget, which includes everything but entitlement programs like Medicare and Social Security. The U.S. has spent $8 trillion on the “Global War on Terror” since 2001.

Since the Declaration of Independence was signed in 1776, the United States has been at war for all but a scant 15 years.

The United States has been at war for the past 22 years since President George W. Bush declared a “Global War on Terror” (GWoT) following 9/11.

The U.S. is also the world’s leading arms-exporting nation, with many of its sales directly fueling wars. In recent years, over two- thirds of active conflicts have involved one or more sides armed by the U.S.

Half of the Defense Department budget goes to contractors. In one recent year, just one contractor—Lockheed Martin—received more in Pentagon contracts than the budgets of the State Department and Agency for International Development combined.

william d. harTung,
QUINCY INSTITUTE FOR RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT

The main product of war is death. Direct deaths caused by combat in post- 9/11 wars—which include combatants on both sides as well as police, contractors, civilians, journalists and humanitarian aid workers—are estimated to be 940,000. – BROWN UNIVERSITY COSTS OF WAR PROJECT

38 million people displaced due to U.S.-led post-9/11 wars.  Of the 4 million Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Afghanistan in 2022, 60% are children. 
–BROWN UNIVERSITY COSTS
OF WAR PROJECT

 The Trump administration’s refugee threshold decrease cost the government more than taking in those refugees would have. The 295,000 less refugees taken in have cost the U.S. $9.1 billion in potential economic activity.
– RELIEF WEB

Direct deaths from post-9/11 wars are estimated to be 940,000, and 38 million people have been displaced.

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