…is now $864 billion according to a Congressional Research Service report posted on the blog Secrecy News. That’s just a scant $164 billion more than the government is planning to spend to bailout Wall Street. To be fair, it did take the Defense Department 8 years to get to that level of spending. The CRS figure includes appropriations and supplementals made between fiscal years 2001 and 2009.
Three-quarters of the war spending, about $657 billion, funded the war in Iraq. Another fifth, $173 billion, went to the war in Afghanistan. And $28 billion enhanced security at military bases. But what of the remaining $5 billion, you ask? CRS says it can’t be accounted for.
More fun facts about war spending after the jump:
-As of July, the average monthly cost to the Defense Department for contracts and pay totaled $12.3 billion for both Iraq and Afghanistan.
-If the war were to last until 2018, CRS estimates the global war on terror will have cost between $1.3 trillion and $1.7 trillion.
