Study: US Wars Cost $4 Trillion, Killed 258,000 -- News from Antiwar.com

Study: US Wars Cost $4 Trillion, Killed 258,000 -- News from Antiwar.com

137,000 Civilians 'Directly' Killed in Iraq, Afghanistan

by Jason Ditz, June 29, 2011

A new study from Brown University’s Watson Institute has set an estimated that the post 9/11 costs of the assorted wars of the Bush and Obama Administrations has been in the realm of $4 trillion and has directly killed 258,000 people.

If this death toll seems a tad low, its because it is. The study readily admits that it is only calculating “direct” kills, and not the indirect deaths from shoddy healthcare, lack of access to food and water, etc in the various occupied nations.

The toll includes 137,000 civilians directly killed in Afghanistan and Iraq and notes that there are no reliable figures for the number of civilians killed in Pakistan, but says 35,000 more there is a conservative estimate.

The cost of the wars includes direct appropriations as well as the increased liability for long term care for wounded soldiers, etc. It does not include the CIA’s drone wars, because the cost of those is not known.