Opinion: Costly wars should lead deficit-cutting panel’s list
By Joel Brinkley
As the congressional debt-reduction “super committee” begins work this month, it had better take into account trillions of dollars in anticipated war costs that no one in Washington seems willing to acknowledge.
For decades now (and probably much longer), government estimates of war costs strove not to count numerous secondary expenses that result from combat, like veterans’ health care – or the $20 billion wasted in Pakistan. Officials find the real numbers embarrassing. A recent Congressional Budget Office report, for example, placed the total costs of the Iraq and Afghan wars at $1.415 trillion, based solely on congressional appropriations specifically dedicated to those wars.
But a new academic study counts everything and puts the wars’ full price at about $4 trillion – almost all of it deficit spending. That’s nearly 30 percent of the nation’s $14 trillion debt. Even that, the study’s authors say, doesn’t include some costs that cannot be tallied, like those in the intelligence agencies’ black budgets, or the hundreds of millions in impromptu “death gratuities” paid to families of Americans and some foreigners killed in war.
The more disturbing finding, however, is that in the coming years the wars threaten to cost the nation another $2 trillion – in interest payments on war debt as well as continuing medical expenses for 150,000 wounded veterans.
Joel Brinkley, a Pulitzer Prize-winning former foreign correspondent for the New York Times, is the author of “Cambodia’s Curse: The Modern History of a Troubled Land.” E-mail him at brinkley@foreign-matters.com.
When you talk about war, once you are in it all talk and focus of objective should be towards winning it.
America went to war in response to a visious un provoked attack.
Then the liberals attacked America with lies and distortion of the truth.
The enemy within.
Interesting perspective. How would you define “winning” in Iraq or Afganistan? What exactly was the objective that was defined for our troops? Wars without clear objectives for the military are impossible to win, we have learned that several times. If this was actually a war, why was it not declared as such by the Congress? I have yet to see any evidence that connects either Iraq or Afganistan to the attacks you refer to. The vast majority of the 9/11 conspiriators were from Saudi Arabia, as was bin-laden. Turning the attacks on America into a political game is not helpful or patriotic. Save your vitriol for the enemy. Lies and distortion of the truth? Really.
What a steaming pile of Limbaugh/Fox excrement that statement is. It’s time to admit that the GOP wars are a total failure and that the enemy within is denial of reality.
Smedley, I do hope that you are referring to the self-styled Environmental that seems to support the bankrupting of America and the waste of an honorable military. It is painfully obvious that the wars that were initiated by Mr. Bush have caused the downfall of our country and created the divide that separates Americans. And, as in all criminal investigations, one must follow the money. Who exactly profited from the wars?
Yes of course dumbfounded. I think our posts were almost simultaneous expressions of disdain for the parroted idiotic talking points from cognitive dissonance world.
Boots on the ground in Libya. Who’s in charge now?
No successful attacks following 911 people! These wars while horrible, costly both in terms of lives and dollars continue to keep all of us safe here at home. You can’t hide your head in the sand when attacked! There is plenty of cuts to be made by the wateful unacceptable spending going on in Washington. What was/is the objective of the wars? What’s the end game? Define winning? Same as it’s always been, keep us safe at home and kill the enemy!
Get a spine! Cut all the real BS spending and for God sake, stop buying oil from these enemy states! Let’s see, fund the very people who are killing our guys and wanting to kill us citizens again or run the risk of a caraboo dying because of an oil rig on the home land… tough choice for the left I guess.
First of all, comparing a handful of troops in Lybia to over 150,000 troops in Iraq and Afganistan is ludricous. How many of our precious young men and women have died in Iraq and Afganistan? How many have died in Lybia? How much treasure have we wasted in any of these countries?
And, Boone, I think that protecting the country before an attack is far better than claiming that the country has not been attacked since we were attacked, but that did not happen. Then, if an attack happens, you go after the people who actually attacked you, not their neighbors. If we had spent the money wasted in Iraq on oil dependence, we would have long ago stopped writing checks to the Saudis. However, there was too much money to be made by the oil interests and contractors. Of course we should be developing our own energy sources. The problem is that, now, we don’t have any money left to do it.
I would simply like those responsible for the failed “war” to acknowledge their failures and move forward, together, with making America strong. Having a spine means admitting your mistakes. Indeed, cut the spending on frivilous nonsense, wherever it is.