PROVIDENCE, R.I., March 19 (UPI) — The Iraq War killed 190,000 people, 70 percent civilians and 4,488 U.S. service members and will cost the U.S. taxpayer $2.2 trillion, U.S. researchers say.
Catherine Lutz, a professor at Brown University, and Neta C. Crawford, a professor of Boston University, co-directors of the Watson Institute for International Studies, said the Costs of War project involved 30 economists, anthropologists, lawyers, humanitarian personnel, political scientists from 15 universities, U.N. staff and members of other organizations.
The report found 134,000 civilians died of direct war violence in Iraq. This number does not account for indirect deaths due to increased vulnerability to disease or injury as a result of war-degraded conditions. That number is estimated to be several times higher, the researchers said. At least 3,400 U.S. contractors died in Iraq as well, the report said.
Iraq’s healthcare infrastructure was devastated from sanctions before and during the war. More than half of Iraq’s doctors left the country during the 2000s, and tens of thousands of Iraqi patients are forced to seek healthcare outside the country, the report said.
The $60 billion spent on reconstruction in Iraq went for military and police — not infrastructure such as roads, healthcare and water treatment systems. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction found massive fraud, waste and abuse of reconstruction funds, the report said.
Because the Iraq War appropriations were funded not by cutting U.S. expenses but from borrowing, the cumulative interest through 2053 could amount to more than $3.9 trillion, the report said.
The findings are published online at www.costsofwar.org.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
Waste of tax dollars??? Think of all the people that were kept working supporting this Government. Remember all I hear here is jobs jobs jobs!!! Quit whinning…..
Anonymous, you are a true idiot! You really don’t think that the Trillions of dollars spent in Iraq was a waste of money and lives? Economy bad… I know, let’s start another war (based on lies) and kill and maim thousands of people, that will help. Nut!
Look at history. Our economy runs on wars!! Aircraft watercraft guns ammo radar on and on and on. Now who’s the idiot!!!
That is OBVIOUS!
If memory serves, no one but me questioned this war at the outset. ALL of you were for this. I was called a traitor, Un-American. I was threatened! YOU ALL wanted this war and I was a lone voice.
Look at me now…
That’s right…you were the ONLY one against the war in Iraq. (Narcissism much?)
As I recall, I was a lone voice at every forum I posted at. I was threatened so bad I to go offline. People forget how much they were brainwashed back then. It was rampant. If you weren’t for it, you were against them and they made you know it. You were told you were a traitor and un-american and that you should move out of the country or suffer the consequences.
Oh ya, you goofballs were all brainwashed over this one. I’m able to think for myself. You kooks watch FOX news.
What a waste of human life and tax dollars. We really lost our standing with NATO and the world also and al this spending helped kill our economy! Thanks W and Satan (I mean Cheney)
@John-Satan is Obama. Didn’t you see the movie?
speak to Bush. he’s the one who began it with that promise to hunt down the one’s responsible for 911 no matter how long it took. Congrsss voted to let him make the choice to send troops. the rest is history.
Bush hoodwinked the American people and Congress was duped.
Now get out the calculator and divide that number by the current US population. That is the amount of money that each man, woman and child could have had.
What a total and utter waste of money and all we have to show for it is a super high rate of suicides among our young men who served.
It was all about money and if it’s gonna be about that then lets split it up evenly.