Cost Of Iraq Afghanistan And Enhanced Base Security Since 9 11

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, CRS estimates that the Administration has allocated a total of about $361 billion for military operations, reconstruction, embassy costs, and various foreign aid programs in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for enhanced security at defense bases. This total includes $50 billion in bridge funding for the Department of Defense (DOD) provided in H.J. Res. 68 /P.L.109-77, a FY2006 Continuing Resolution, which was signed by the President on September 30, 2005. More funds will be needed by DOD to cover the rest of the year. That total includes some $330 billion for DOD and $31 billion for foreign aid programs and embassy operations. If the bridge funds are split in a fashion similar to FY2005, funding would total about $255 billion for Iraq, about $83 billion for Afghanistan, and $24 billion for base security. Iraq s total is split between $230 billion for DOD and $25 billion for foreign operations. Afghanistan s total includes $77 billion for DOD and $6 billion for foreign operations. All base security funds go to DOD. Based on a CBO estimate that assumes a gradual drawdown in U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan between FY2006 and FY2010, war-related costs could total about $570 billion by the end of 2010. DOD s current monthly average spending rate is about $6 billion for Iraq, $1 billion for Afghanistan and $170 million for enhanced base security for the first nine months of FY2005. Compared to FY2004, those averages are 19% higher for Iraq, 8% lower for Afghanistan, and 47% lower for base security. The Department of Defense has not provided an overall reckoning of these funds by mission or military operation. Gaps in the figures raise questions such as whether DOD transferred $7 billion or $14 billion from peacetime funds to meet higher than expected wartime costs. DOD also used $2.5 billion from prior year monies to prepare for the Iraq war before passage of the joint resolution authorizing the use of force in Iraq in October 2002.

This report analyzes the war funding for the Defense Department and tracks funding for USAID and VA Medical funding.

About 92% of the funds are for Department of Defense (DOD), 6% for State Department foreign aid programs and diplomatic operations, 1% for Department of Veterans Administration's medical care for veterans. In addition, 5% of the funds (across agencies) are for programs and activities tangentially-related to war operations. The FY2015 war request for DOD, State/USAID, and Veterans Administration Medical totals $73.5 billion including $58.1 billion for Afghanistan, $5.0 billion for Iraq, $ 100 million for enhanced security, and $10.4 billion for other war-designated funding. These totals do not reflect the new FY2015 request submitted in November 2014 to cover expenses for Operations Inherent Resolve (OIR) that began with airstrikes launched in late August 2014, to aid Syrian insurgents and the Iraq government to counter the takeover of territory by the Islamic State (IS). The Administration submitted a $5.5 billion FY2015 budget amendment for this operation that Congress is considering. Including the new request, the FY2015 war funding now totals $79.0 billion. In late May 2014, the President announced that troop levels in Afghanistan would fall from 33,000 to 9,800 by January 1, 2015 with the U.S. role focusing on advising Afghan security forces and conducting counter-terror operations. A year later, by January 1, 2016, the President stated that the number of troops in Afghanistan would halve to about 4,900 and then by the beginning of 2017, settle at an embassy presence of about 1,000. Overall U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq began to decline with the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Iraq by December 2011. The troop decline continued with President Obama's announcement in February 2013 that the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan would halve from 67,000 to 34,000 by February 2014. Annual war costs also decreased from a peak of $195 billion in FY2008 to $95 billion enacted in FY2014. After the reversal of the 2009 Afghanistan surge, the President promised in the 2013 State of the Union address that "our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace as Afghan security forces move into the lead [and] our mission will change from combat to support." He also stated that by "2014, this process of transition will be complete, and the Afghan people will be responsible for their own security." The FY2015 Continuing Resolution (H.J.Res. 124/P.L. 113-164) sets war funding at the FY2014 enacted level of $95.5 billion, which exceeds the FY2015 amended request (with OIR) by about $16.5 billion. The CR expires on December 11, 2014, and Congress is expected to enact another CR or an Omnibus appropriations act for the rest of the fiscal year.

In the ninth year of operations since the 9/11 attacks while troops are being withdrawn in Iraq and increased in Afghanistan, the cost of war continues to be a major issue including the total amount appropriated, the amount for each operation, average monthly spending rates, and the scope and duration of future costs. This report analyzes war funding for the Defense Department and tracks funding for USAID and VA Medical funding.

Ten years on, what have been the principal impacts of the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 on the external policies and international outlooks of the world's major powers, the range and scope of the international security agenda and on the capacity for states and international organisations to work together to combat the dangers of international terrorism? This book investigates a range of international responses to the events of 9/11, to evaluate their consistency over time; to analyse their long-term significance and impact and to consider both their implications for the international security agenda and the prospects for international cooperation in addressing the challenges posed. In particular, the book considers the perspectives of some of the world's major powers and international organisations on the question of international terrorism, and on its perpetrators, comparing their interpretations and responses and examining how these have changed over the course of a decade of conflict. This book is primarily directed at an academic market, and especially towards undergraduate and taught postgraduate students on courses in international politics, international relations, security studies, terrorism studies, and contemporary international history.

Anthony Cordesman offers a detailed analysis of ten major challenges affecting U.S. national security, systematically identifying current failures and inefficiencies and proposing constructive ways to proceed in the future.