In just 20 years, the now-ending US combat mission in Afghanistan was America’s longest war.
Ordinary Americans forgot about it, and it received far less oversight from Congress than in the Vietnam War. But its death toll is in thousands. And since America borrowed most of the money to pay for it, generations of Americans will be burdened with the cost of paying it off.
Here’s a look at the US-led war in Afghanistan by the numbers, as the Taliban struck much of the country in a lightning strike ahead of the United States’ August 31 deadline for ending its combat role. As soon as the US is captured and the American and Afghan evacuation.
Most of the data below is from Linda Bilms of Harvard University’s Kennedy School and the Brown University Cost of War Project. Because the United States fought the Afghanistan and Iraq wars together between 2003 and 2011, and many American soldiers served tours in both wars, some statistics suggest that the US war after 9/11 has been linked to both. has been covered.
The numbers show that more Afghan security forces died than Taliban or other opposition fighters, and 1.5 times more American contractors than service personnel.
Hundreds of aid workers and dozens of journalists were also killed.
Meanwhile, infant mortality rates declined and literacy among girls increased.
In Washington, the cost of the war, which was never formally declared, was barely mentioned. The price, trillions of dollars, will be covered by generations to come.
the longest war
Percentage of the US population born since the 2001 attacks that were plotted by al-Qaeda leaders who took refuge in Afghanistan: roughly one in four.
human cost
- US service members killed in Afghanistan during April: 2,448.
- US contractors: 3,846.
- Afghan National Army and Police: 66,000.
- Other allied service members, including other NATO member states: 1,144.
- Afghan citizens: 47,245.
- Taliban and other opposition fighters: 51,191.
- Support Personnel: 444.
- Journalist: 72.
In total, 172,390 people are estimated to have died as a result of the fighting.
Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of US occupation
- The percentage drop in infant mortality since the US, Afghan and other allied forces overthrew the Taliban government, which sought to keep women and girls confined to the home: about 50.
- Percentage of Afghan teenage girls able to read today: 37.
oversight by congress
- Date Congress authorized the US military to pursue perpetrators in the September 11, 2001, attacks: September 18, 2001.
- The number of times US lawmakers have voted to declare war in Afghanistan: 0.
- The number of times lawmakers on the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee addressed the costs of the Vietnam War during that conflict: 42
- Lawmakers in the same subcommittee mention the cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars by mid-2021: 5.
- How many times have lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee mentioned the cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars from September 11, 2001 to mid-summer 2021: 1.
Paying for the War on Credit, Not Cash
- Amount US President Harry Truman temporarily raised top tax rates to pay for the Korean War: 92%.
- Amount US President Lyndon Johnson temporarily increased top tax rates to pay for the Vietnam War: 77%.
- The amount US President George W. Bush cut tax rates for the wealthiest at the start of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, instead of raising them: at least 8%.
- Estimated amount of direct Afghanistan and Iraq war that the United States has debt-financed by 2020: $2 trillion.
- Estimated interest cost by 2050: up to $6.5 trillion.
- Bilms estimates the amount the United States has committed to pay health care, disability, burial, and other costs for nearly 4 million Afghanistan and Iraq veterans: more than $2 trillion.
- The period those costs will peak: after 2048.
