Talk:Financial cost of the Iraq War

message: This article seems only to be "direct costs", or expenditures of the main invading countries.
The costs to Iraq and the indirect costs to other countries have been huge, and should either be mentioned, or else the title should be adapted accordingly. DanielDemaret 05:06, 28 April 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Direct cost 

message: Some of these figures are misleading as they include things such as Tsunami Relief and operations in Afghanistan, which are unlreated to the costs incurred from the conflict in Iraq Trypsin24 19:20, 6 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Misleading figures 

message: Worth noting.
'Hidden costs raise' US war price
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7092053.stm
The US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are costing nearly double the amount previously thought, according to a report by Democrats in the US Congress. They say "hidden costs" have pushed the total to about $1.5 trillion - nearly twice the requested $804bn (£402bn).  Higher oil prices, treating wounded veterans, and the cost to the economy of pulling reservists away from their jobs have been taken into account.
User:gelato 02:28, 14 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Hidden Costs of Iraq and/or Afghanistan War 

message: He's now claiming $3 trillion, as per BBC Radio Four interview on February 25th 2008Jatrius (talk) 19:24, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Stiglitz' figures 

message: I do not really get the whole "oh it will provide X a day for a family of Y" analogies when there's NOTHING on what the official allocation in the national budget is, which as I recall, the War only accounts for 25% of the previous deficit before this new year's budget (in which things were shaken up a bit). John Riemann Soong (talk) 10:04, 2 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  screw the metaphorical analogies: where's the straight out budget allocation 

message: I came here looking for information and all I got was ideology.  Specifically, I want to know:
* What is the actual cost of war operations?
* How much is the incremental cost of the Iraq war over normal defense allocations?
* What percent of the US Federal Budget does it account for?
In short, I wanted facts.  All I see is hand-wringing about the evils of war and how the money could have been spent differently.  Extremely disappointing.  I fear the critics of Wikipedia may be right -- it just can't produce an unbiased article on any politically-charged topic.
Joebarnhart (talk) 20:06, 30 September 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  This article is a disappointment 

message: I propose that Cost of War be merged into this article. mmortal03 (talk) 11:59, 4 December 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Agree.  Cost of War should be redirected to this article, and the lead paragraph of that article placed here.  There are so many better articles that could be placed at Cost of war; cost of conflict is a reasonable start, but the analysis methods should also be somewhere on Wikipedia.  — Arthur Rubin  (talk) 15:58, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merger proposal 

message: The very first number mentioned in this article contests the "official" numbers. This is not neutral. The official numbers should be the primary data used within this article.
In addition, the people who contest the costs include other data. Including retirement, injury, debt interest, etc. However, they don't include any positive effects, such as averting future terrorism and increasing the security of America. In order to remove bias, the direct, official, actual spending numbers must be the primary source.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sloppyjoes7 (talk • contribs) 21:36, 12 August 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Two thought, “official” numbers are in doubt because it is impossible to separate Iraq from Afghanistan funding is some appropriations and from all DoD appropriations during the war years.  For example, say DoD bought x rockets from their baseline appropriation.  Of those y went to the Pacific and were never used and z went to the gulf and were all fired but there is no record of in which action they were used.  How do you allocate for their cost?  While not “direct” costs, future interest on money borrowed to fund the war and money to fund for wounded warriors is most certainly a cost that must be acknowledged.  Oldfart48 (talk) 17:58, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

text: Agree that cost vs alternative is ideal, but it must avoid arguable hypotheticals to remain objective.  I'd prefer to see the official expenditures first with a break-down as to Iraq and combined Iraq+other costs,followed by rebuttal figures and also a comparison with cost of the standing army not deployed during that period.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.10.0.181 (talk) 06:52, 11 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Neutrality of data 

message: Please do not conflate the two. -- DBooth (talk) 19:07, 20 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  This is about the Iraq war -- not the so-called "War on Terror" 

message: Economic Cost Summary | Costs of War. 
*http://costsofwar.org/article/economic-cost-summary - "The Costs of War economics research team used the most up-to-date publicly available figures at the time of their writing to calculate the spending on the wars from 2001 through fiscal year 2014."
The chart on the above page says the total will be $7.9 trillion when additional interest through 2053 is included. 
Who We Are | Costs of War: 
*http://costsofwar.org/article/who-we-are 
--Timeshifter (talk) 05:11, 24 March 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  costsofwar.org says $4.4 trillion for Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan wars 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: *Estimating The Costs Of War, Then And Now. By Tom Engelhardt. Nov. 21, 2017. Huffington Post. From the article (emphasis added):
Just recently, the Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute offered a new estimate of what America’s wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan will cost the country through fiscal year 2018 and it’s a figure ― $5.6 trillion ― that should make your head spin.  It certainly leaves Lindsey’s and Daniels’s estimates in a ditch somewhere on the road to Baghdad.  Put another way, we’re talking at a bare minimum about a cost per American taxpayer since September 12, 2001, of more than $23,000.  Good for the economy?  Hmmm.  And the Costs of War report’s estimate doesn’t even include interest on the borrowing that’s taken place to pay for those wars, which, it suggests, is “projected to add more than $1 trillion dollars to the national debt by 2023.”
The link in the above quote goes here: 
*United States Budgetary Costs of Post-9/11 Wars Through FY 2018: A Summary of the $5.6 Trillion in Costs for the US Wars in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Post-9/11 Veterans Care and Homeland Security. By Neta C. Crawford, Boston University. November 2017. Costs of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs. From the report (emphasis added): 
As of late September 2017, the United States wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria and the additional spending on Homeland Security, and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs since the 9/11 attacks totaled more than $4.3 trillion in current dollars through FY2017. Adding likely costs for FY2018 and estimated future spending on veterans, the costs of war total more than $5.6 trillion. This report focuses on US federal budgetary costs and obligations for America’s wars since 9/11.
This Google search pulls up more articles:
*U.S. Spent $5.6 Trillion on Wars in Middle East and Asia: Study.
Various articles use the above total cost to come up with the number of $23,000 per taxpayer. It would be more accurate to say per adult U.S. resident. $5.6 trillion divided by $23,000 equals 243.5 million people. See: Demography of the United States: "There were about 125.9 million adult women in the United States in 2014. The number of men was 119.4 million." That totals 245.3, close enough for government purposes. :) 
I don't know if the main source breaks it down just for Iraq War costs. --Timeshifter (talk) 20:17, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Costs of War project update 

message: I have found this report, from https://fas.org/blogs/secrecy/2018/03/cow-aug17/. It is a DoD report and so may merit an appearance here. But I am not sure how to separate out the Iraq War costs from the "Global War on Terror" costs and I am not sure that separating them even makes sense. Given the scope of the GWoT, does limiting this to one country make sense?
Separate from that, does anyone else see a way to integrate the data from this report into this page? I feel that if I tried, I would end up muddying the waters.
RayKiddy (talk) 23:08, 18 December 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Cost of War report from DoD