'Everything changed': The human cost of 25 years of US wars... Successive wars launched after 9/11 have killed at least 4.5 million people and displaced more than 38 million others.

 

"The United States has spent an estimated $5.8 trillion on two decades of war, with an additional $2.2 trillion reserved for veterans' care in the coming decades - bringing the total cost to at least $8 trillion.

By 2030, the US will have spent as much on interest as on the fighting itself, a debt today's under-25s will help pay off."

By Hanna Duggal and Alia Chughtai

Published On 11 Sep 202611 Sep 2026

Twenty-five years have passed since 19 al-Qaeda hijackers seized four commercial aeroplanes and slammed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing nearly 3,000 people.

What followed was a series of US-led wars that reshaped Washington’s foreign policy for a generation, in which every year since 2001, US forces have bombed a country somewhere in the world, devastating the lives of millions.

“Everything changed,” Omar*, an Iraqi student at the time of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, told Al Jazeera. The war was launched on the false pretence that Iraq harboured weapons of mass destruction.

Less than a month after 9/11, the US invaded Afghanistan, launching what President George W Bush called the “War on Terror” - a series of seemingly endless wars and military campaigns spanning Afghanistan, Iraq and countries across the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.

According to the Cost of War project at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs estimates that US-led wars since 2001 have directly or indirectly killed an estimated 4.5 to 4.7 million people - including approximately 940,000 direct deaths and 3.6 to 3.8 million indirect deaths from disease, malnutrition and health complications.... READ MORE 

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2026/9/11/everything-changed-the-human-cost-of-25-years-of-us-wars 

The long-term costs have also been enormous. The Costs of War Project estimates that caring for post-9/11 veterans in the United States could cost $2.2 trillion to $2.5 trillion by 2050, much of it still unpaid. Many veterans continue to face a mental-health crisis.

“Four times as many US service members and veterans died by suicide as were killed in combat during the post-9/11 wars,” Stephanie Savell, director of the Costs of War Project, told Al Jazeera

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4.7 Million Dead, $8 Trillion: Counting the Devastating Human & Economic Costs of the Post‑9/11 Wars

 September 10, 2026

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As part of our weeklong coverage marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the launch of the United States’ so-called war on terror, we take a look at the human, financial and environmental costs of U.S. military intervention around the world with Neta Crawford, co-founder of Brown University’s Costs of War Project. Researchers at the Costs of War Project estimate that nearly a million people have been killed as a direct result of U.S. military violence in the Middle East since 2001. At least half are estimated to be civilians. An additional 3.8 million deaths can be attributed to the indirect effects of war, including injuries, famine and long-term health conditions. And the wars have also increased the U.S. debt, military footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, destruction and destabilization abroad and unchecked executive power at home. “The consequences are all around us,” says Crawford.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: We end today’s show with a look at the human, budgetary and environmental costs of these forever wars. According to the latest numbers from the nonpartisan Costs of War Project at Brown University, close to 1 million people were killed due to war violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria and beyond. At least half of them are estimated to be civilians. The indirect death toll from these wars is far higher, between 3.6 and 3.8 million people.

AMY GOODMAN: In terms of budget costs, the U.S. federal government has spent more than $8 trillion on the post-9/11 wars through 2021.

For more, we’re joined by Neta Crawford, the co-founder of the Costs of War Project.

In these last few minutes that we have, lay out the costs of war, as we are here today on this 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

NETA CRAWFORD: Well, you’ve already touched on the direct death, the killing that results when bombs and bullets and fire are rained down on people. And the soldiers who were fighting for the United States and its allies died. But there’s the indirect death, the consequences of the destruction of infrastructure, which can be two or three times the number of people who are injured. And this is because there’s no longer hospitals or healthcare available to people, because food has been — production has been disrupted. So, the harm to bodies is substantial.

A second harm, which Spencer Ackerman discussed briefly, was the harm to U.S. democracy. There’s decreased congressional and judicial oversight of the executive, increased executive power. There’s been a decline in the rule of law. The United States waged preventive war in Iraq. That’s a real consequence, which has led to more easily waging war in Iran.

So, there’s the human toll, the political consequences, and the environmental consequences are devastating, because not only did the United States increase its use of force immediately after the attack on Afghanistan began, the United States military has increased its use of force even after those wars ended. The United States has a global military presence, more than 750 bases around the world. And its presence has caused environmental harm because of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the world’s largest petroleum user, which is the Department of Defense.

So, it’s human, political, and now just to conclude with the economic costs, which are increased debt to the United States, increased military spending, but also, because these wars were not paid for through taxes like previous wars — they were paid for by borrowing — the United States’ debt has grown, and the interest to pay the debt will be coming out of the Treasury for many years to come. So, the consequences are all around us.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for being with us, Neta Crawford, co-founder of the Costs of War Project, which we will link to.

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/9/10/9_11_25th_anniversary_costs_of 

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Tallying the global cost of the US-Israel war against Iran From thousands of lives lost to an economic shock likely to plunge millions into poverty, the world is paying dearly

Among the lives lost were 120 primary schoolchildren killed on the first day of the war in Iran.

Photograph: Abbas Zakeri/Mehr News/WANA/Reuters

By Oliver Holmes, graphics by Paul Scruton

Mon 15 Jun 2026

It would be hard to find a human on Earth unaffected by the US-Israel war against Iran. Several thousand have been killed. Millions more pay are paying each day in steeper food prices or at the petrol pump, and as inflation eats away at the value of their earnings.

For many, the final bill has not yet come, but it will eventually. They will pay for the long-term damage caused by the biggest threat of all to the global economy: uncertainty.

Uncertainty is hard to measure, but one way is to look at geopolitical risk, which stalls investment and employment. The US Federal Reserve economists Dario Caldara and Matteo Iacoviello have created an index that tracks reports of global tension. It shows the Iran war has been more destabilising than the Covid-19 pandemic, but on a par with either the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 or that of Iraq in 2003.

So how does the world tally the cost of this war? Some costs are easier to calculate than others, such as bills for surface-to-air missiles that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each. Others are harder to quantify, including the damage caused to Iranian and Lebanese hospitals and power networks. Much cannot be valued at all – the lives lost, including the 120 primary schoolchildren in Iran killed on the first day of the war.

Then there are hypothetical costs. A senior UN aid official framed the conflict in terms of opportunity cost, noting that the $2bn (£1.5bn) a day spent on military operations could otherwise cover lifesaving aid for roughly 87 million people.

And what about the beneficiaries of this war, the oil companies and the shareholders of arms manufacturers?

Here are some ways the impact of the war has been assessed: 

READ MORE  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/15/tallying-the-global-cost-of-the-us-israel-war-against-iran

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How do armed conflicts affect us? What is the #CostOfConflicts? .... A Plea for Peace & the United Nations

 

UN Special Procedures

@UN_SPExperts

 

How do armed conflicts affect us? What is the #CostOfConflicts? 

 

 @UNSRdevelopment calls on States to invest in human rights based sustainable approaches to peace.

 

 #Right2Development #Unite4Peace

 https://x.com/UN_SPExperts/status/2050126121887257063/photo/1

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COSTS of WAR: "The “Military-Industrial Complex” is enmeshed with Silicon Valley. A growing portion of Pentagon spending goes to large tech firms..."

 

 

Costs of War

Some of the Costs of War Project’s main findings include: 

Recent Findings

• In the two years since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, the U.S. government has spent $21.7 billion on military aid to Israel.
•  
• The U.S. has spent an additional $9.65 – $12.07 billion on military operations in Yemen and the wider region since October 7, 2023, for a total of $31.35 – $33.77 billion and counting in U.S. spending on the post-10/7 wars.
•  
• As of October 3, 2025, 67,075 people in Gaza have been killed and 169,430 people injured according to the Gaza Ministry of Health. These 236,505 casualties constitute more than 10% of the pre-war population in Gaza.
•  
• At least 5.27 million people have fled or been forced to leave their homes (as of early September 2025) in the post-Oct.7, 2023 wars in Gaza, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, and the West Bank. This total includes an estimated 1.85 million children under 18.
•  
• Military spending produces an average of 5 jobs per $1 million. The same investment in other sectors creates more employment - nearly 13 jobs in education, 9 in healthcare, and 7-8 in infrastructure and clean energy.
•  
• From 2020 to 2024, private firms received $2.4 trillion in contracts from the Pentagon, approximately 54% of the department’s discretionary spending of $4.4 trillion.
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• The expanding tools of political influence used by the arms industry include extensive lobbying, millions in campaign donations, the revolving door, funding think tanks, and involvement in government advisory committees.
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• U.S.-backed Israeli military operations since Oct. 7, 2023 will lead to far higher indirect death than direct death rates.
•  
• Over the course of the war in Afghanistan (2001-2021), 24% of U.S. women service members and 1.9% of men experienced sexual assault.
•  
• The “Military-Industrial Complex” is enmeshed with Silicon Valley. A growing portion of Pentagon spending goes to large tech firms.
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• War contributes significantly to climate change: The U.S. Defense Department is one of the world’s top greenhouse gas emitters.
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• Official U.S. discourses about security threats from China and Russia are characterized by threat inflation.
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• Americans are inundated with cultural products that promote militarism – many of them influenced by the Pentagon. From movies to sporting events, the entertainment we consume normalizes war, reducing reflection about U.S. policy choices and their consequences

United States Post-9/11 Wars 

• The wars have been accompanied by erosions in civil liberties and human rights at home and abroad.
•  
• The U.S. government is conducting counterterror activities in 78 countries.
•  
• An estimated 3.6-3.8 million people have died indirectly in post-9/11 war zones, bringing the total death toll to at least 4.5-4.7 million and counting.
•  
• At least 940,000 people have died due to direct war violence, including civilians, armed forces on all sides, contractors, journalists, and humanitarian workers.
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• U.S. policymakers scarcely considered alternatives to war in the aftermath of 9/11 or in debating the invasion of Iraq. Many of those alternatives are still available.
•  
• The cost of the post-9/11 wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and elsewhere totals about $8 trillion. This does not include future interest costs on borrowing for the wars.
•  
• 38 million people have been displaced by the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and the Philippines.
•  
• The costs of caring for post-9/11 war vets will reach between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion by 2050 - most of which has not yet been paid.
•  
• Post-9/11 war veterans are suffering a mental health crisis. At least four times as many active duty personnel and war veterans of post-9/11 conflicts have died of suicide than in combat.
•  
• The ripple effects on the U.S. economy have also been significant, including job loss and interest rate increases.

 https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/findings

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 https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/about

The Costs of War project conducts and publishes research about the ongoing consequences of the United States post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere; the costs of global U.S. military operations; and the domestic effects of U.S. military spending.

Created in 2010 and housed at Brown University’s Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of International and Public Affairs, the Costs of War project builds on the work of over 70 scholars, experts, human rights advocates, and physicians from around the world. 

We aim to raise awareness and foster public debate by providing the fullest possible account of the human, economic, political, and environmental costs of U.S. militarism, laying the foundation for better informed U.S. foreign and domestic policies.

About Costs of War

The Costs of War project publishes public-facing research about the broad consequences of U.S. military operations and spending, including their domestic effects, and the ongoing costs of the U.S. post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and beyond.

https://costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/costs/economic/us-federal-budget