As Iraq melts down it might be instructive, if painful, to remember just how much we have spent, and will spend, in blood and treasure nation building in that collapsing country.
Inspector General Stuart W. Bowen released in March of 2013 the final report on the U.S. reconstruction effort in Iraq. The report contends that over nine years (2003-12) the U.S. spent more than $60 billion trying to rebuild the country, with some $9 billion wasted due to incompetence and fraud. My guess is that both numbers are on the low side.
But the most tragic figures are these: 4,448 Americans died, while 32,221 were wounded in battle. An estimated 3,400 contractors also lost their lives.
In the height of irony, given recent developments in Iraq, the Bowen report claimed that the $20.2 billion the U.S. spent on training and equipping Iraqi forces to defend the country was money well spent—because those troops were keeping the country safe from outside threats.
Those may be the direct costs, but what about the indirect costs?
Brown University’s Watson Institute for International Studies released its own report the same month as the IG’s estimating the total financial costs, including the war and future expenses such as health care for our vets, at $2.2 trillion through 2053.
Take the 32,221 wounded. Thousands of them have lost one or more of their arms or legs. They had to return to a life of rehab and prosthetics. All of that comes at a cost, both personal and financial.
Thousands more suffer from war-related mental infirmities: post traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), brain concussions and depression. Those medical conditions have a cost, but they can also impose an intangible cost, such as the inability to hold a job, or they become the source of family strains as the vet tries to deal with all of these challenges.
The Brown University report estimates the cost of health care for our vets through 2053 at $500 billion. The costs in unemployment benefits, welfare, Medicaid, and broken families may be incalculable.
And then there is the most tragic cost of all: the 4,448 brave Americans who never saw their families again. We can’t put a price on that sacrifice.
Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have both implied that at least we were leaving behind a stable and democratic Iraq that would be a strong ally in a tumultuous Middle East. No one seems to be making that claim now.
While historians will debate for generations whether the U.S. was justified in invading Iraq—a task made more difficult by the fact there we found no weapons of mass destruction—we need to remember that all wars have costs, both tangible and intangible.
The number crunchers may calculate the direct costs; but the indirect costs are incalculable.