Aug 17, 2021: America’s longest-running war in Afghanistan, which began in 2001, is coming to an end after 20 years.
This war has not been the focus of attention or part of the national conscience of ordinary Americans, nor has the American Congress monitored government operations in Afghanistan in the way that the Vietnam War was fought and discussed. According to sources, most of the money spent by the US government during the war in Afghanistan was spent on debt, a burden that Americans will have to bear for generations.
The United States, however, has announced that it will end its military mission in Afghanistan by August 31. However, if you look at the amount spent during this long war, trillions of American tax payer dollars have been spent in these 20 years. While many precious lives were also been lost.
According to data from Harvard’s Kennedy School and Brown University’s “The Cost of War” project: In Afghanistan, 2,448 US troops and 3,846 US contractors were killed, while 1,144 personnel from other NATO countries were killed.
In addition, 66,000 Afghan army and police personnel were killed. While the number of Afghan civilians killed during the war is 42,245.
51,191 Taliban and other anti-government fighters were killed. In those 20 years, 444 aid workers and 72 journalists also lost their lives.
After the attacks on America’s soil on September 11, 2001, the Congress allowed the invasion of Afghanistan on September 18. But the Members of the US Congress never voted on the war.
During America’s Vietnam War, members of the Senate Appropriations Standing Committee on Defense discussed war-related issues 42 times. The members of the same committee only mentioned the cost of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq five times. While members of the Senate Finance Committee discussed the issue only once. “The cost of the war in Afghanistan was not paid in cash but in debt” The cost of the US war in Afghanistan is comparable to that of the wars with Korea and Vietnam.
During the US-led war with Korea, former US President Harry Truman temporarily increased spending by raising taxes by 92%. Similarly, during the Vietnam War, former President London Johnson met costs by temporarily raising America’s taxes by 77%.
In contrast, former President George W. Bush cut taxes for the rich by 8% during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. If we look at the figures for the year 2020, the United States covered the cost of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq with a loan amounting to about two trillion dollars.
It is estimated that by 2050, the cost of America’s war in Afghanistan, including interest, will exceed $6 trillion, even if the war ends now.
But Financial losses will have to be paid by Americans for many years to come. The United States has allocated more than $200 billion for the health, disability, burial and other expenses of the 4 million troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq.
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