The Cost of the War on Terror

The war on Terror began on September 11th, 2001, right after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center. The war on terror encompasses both the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. The war on terror has claimed the lives of 6,951 military deaths. 4,550 of these deaths occurred in Afghanistan and 2,401 of them occurred in Iraq. Additionally, 362 American journalists have been killed so far. In terms of financial costs, the war on terror added 2.3 trillion dollars to the US national debt so far. in 2008, the budget for that year alone was estimated at a total of 235.6 billion dollars. In 2020, the budget is expected to be 109 billion. This dramatic cost for the war has severely affected the US economy in many ways. First off, the immense spending actually reduced the number of jobs in the US, because a billion dollars spent as a tax cut creates approximately 2000 more jobs than a billion dollars spent on the military. To put that into perspective, the 2.4 trillion dollars spent on the military created 20 million jobs, but if that money went towards education then it would've created almost 42 million jobs. This ultimately would've helped end sooner the recession that started in 2008 which makes people reevaluate the decision of whether the United States should've been involved in the war on terror as much as it was. In conclusion, it is best to hope that the war on terror ends as soon as possible before it plunges the US into unpayable debt.