Abstract
The Afghan and Iraqi conflicts, taken together, will be the most expensive wars in United States history, totaling somewhere between US$4 to US$6 trillion. This includes long-term medical care and disability compensation for service members, veterans and families, military replenishment, and social and economic costs. The largest portion of that bill is yet to be paid. Since 2001, the U.S. has expanded the quality, quantity, availability, and eligibility of benefits for military personnel and veterans. This has led to unprecedented growth in the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense budgets. These benefits will increase further over the next 40 years. Additional funds are committed to replacing large quantities of basic equipment used in the wars and to support ongoing diplomatic presence and military assistance in Afghanistan and Iraq. The large sums borrowed to finance war-related operations will also impose substantial long-term debt servicing costs. As a consequence of these wartime spending choices, the United States will face constraints in funding investments in personnel and diplomacy, research and development, and new military initiatives. The legacy of decisions taken during the Afghan and Iraqi wars will dominate federal budgets for decades to come.
Highlights
One of the most significant challenges to future United States national security policy will not originate from any external threat
The United States has already spent close to US$2 trillion in direct outlays for expenses related to Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn
The United States has expanded veteran’s programs, made it easier to qualify for some categories of compensation, and invested in additional staff, technology, mental health care, medical research, and other services designed to improve the situation of newly returning veterans
Summary
More than 30,000 OEF/OIF/OND veterans have been awarded 100 percent service-connection, which makes them automatically eligible to receive supplemental disability compensation from SSDI.23 This includes, for example, 6,476 cases of severe penetrating brain injury, and 1,715 individuals with limb amputations.. Related costs to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Certain portions of the cumulative growth of the VA budget (from US$61 billion in 2001 to US$140 billion 2013, in constant dollars) are the result of specific decisions, initiatives, programs, benefits, and investments directly related to serving Afghanistan and Iraq veterans These include expenditures directly related to recent veterans, including readjustment counseling, fast-track processing for OEF/OIF/OND disability claims, hiring of thousands of new mental health professionals to staff clinics for veterans suffering from PTSD, and other items serving the needs of recent veterans.. The most costly of these are investments in benefits claims processing,
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