A fairly detailed article in the
Christian Science Monitor based on conservative estimates of Linda Bilmes, a professor at Harvard, suggests that the combination of the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns could cost 1.4 trillion dollars if they last another 5 years.
What 1.4 trillions means:
If the war lasts another five years, it will cost nearly $1.4 trillion, calculates Linda Bilmes, who teaches budgeting at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. That's nearly $4,745 per capita. Her estimate is thorough. She includes not only the military cost but also such things as veterans' benefits and additional interest on the federal debt
More conservative estimates without a defined timeline:
Before the war is over, military costs may reach $500 billion, reckons Gordon Adams, an expert at George Washington University in Washington. He wonders if President Bush will make an "electoral calculation" next spring by pulling 30,000 or so troops out of Iraq before the midterm congressional elections. That would lower costs.
Finally, why the estimates are VERY conservative:
Military costs run at least $6 billion per month, Mr. Adams calculates. Military estimates, he says, are based on oil costing $36 per-barrel, not the current $67. Fuel is a major bill in military operations, and the US must import much of the fuel it uses in Iraq.
What the estimates of the above authors do not account for is the fradulent billing/bookeeping of Halliburton and other companies fleecing the US taxpayer.
I'm going to take this a step further, regarding economic costs in the "War on Terror":
- does not account for the costs incurred by Katrina. Many diarists have published the anticipated needs of the National Guard and what it costs us.
- loss of revenues for universities following 9/11, particularly through the difficulty of obtaining visas for foreign nationals who really buoy the revenue of Uni's for higher education
- similar loss of accessibility has harmed tourism.
- the boycotting of American products (its difficult to assess how meaningful the harm from this has been)
- The soaring costs of oil and the threat to switch to petroeuros more profoundly affects the economy.
- Forget the costs of interest on the financing of the war. The double whammy is the federal deficit is widening partly as a result of the war. So we pay interest on the war, and interest on the national debt (worsened by war). 100 billion dollars not used for domestic needs but shunted to the military means paying interest on 200 billion dollars not just the military costs.
- Tougher stances by countries regarding foreign trade, particularly with China.
These are just a few things off the top of my head.
Indeed, Dubya runs away with the award for WORST ELECTED LEADER EVER!!!