Study puts total price tag for Iraq, Afghanistan wars at more than $4 trillion

The final cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will be
between $4 and $6 trillion — and most of those costs have yet to be paid,
according to a new study out of Harvard University.

The report
from Harvard Kennedy School professor Linda Bilmes finds the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars together will be the most expensive in U.S. history when
long-term medical and disability costs for service members are factored in.

“The legacy of decisions taken during the Iraq and
Afghanistan wars will dominate future federal budgets for decades to come,”
Bilmes wrote.

{mosads}The study says that the United States has already spent nearly $2
trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But that bill is only “a fraction”
of the total war costs, Bilmes wrote.

“The single largest accrued liability of the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan is the cost of providing medical care and disability
benefits to war veterans,” she said. “Historically, the bill for these costs
has come due many decades later.”

The report noted that the peak year in
compensation for World War I veterans was 1969, and World War II veterans saw
the largest payments from the government in the late 1980s. 

Payments to veterans of Vietnam
and the first Gulf War are still rising, Bilmes wrote.

A key factor in the cost growth for the Iraq and Afghanistan
wars is the expansion in quantity, quality and availability of medical benefits
for U.S. troops since 9/11, according to the report.