Estimating the Costs of 20 Years in Afghanistan
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By Mackenzie Eaglen
August 28, 2021
Estimating the Costs of 20 Years in Afghanistan
U.S. Army photo by SGT Mike MacLeod
As an avoidable and catastrophic human tragedy unfolds as U.S. government personnel and military forces leave Afghanistan, various analyses are using different yardsticks to determine how much American treasure supported 20 years of combat and supporting operations. Many are asking what sort of return on investment was achieved for Afghans, the U.S., and our allies. Separate from the value of our presence, the cost of war figures ranges from tens of billions to trillions. Most numbers are not “right” or “wrong,” but rather more expansive or less. Understanding estimates more richly will help policymakers evaluate the financial costs and consequences of combat.
Pentagon War Cost Estimates
The Department of Defense can detail that it has spent $1.7 trillion on war-related costs in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries since September 2001. For Afghanistan specifically, Operation Enduring Freedom costs totaled roughly $578 billion, and Operation Freedom's Sentinel costs are currently about $256 billion. The Pentagon, therefore, estimates spending a total of $837 billion as the cost for the Afghanistan war.
However, tracking and adding the accounts to pay for these operations over time is not straightforward. The U.S. military designates specific war zones as named operations with aligned funding within dedicated accounts, and the names change when the associated missions shift. U.S. operations in Afghanistan started as Enduring Freedom, which lasted from 2001 to 2014, and then became Freedom’s Sentinel, which will presumably conclude this month or next.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2021/08/28/estimating_the_costs_of_20_years_in_afghanistan_792019.html
