The war in Iraq that started just 20 years ago, on March 20, 2003, has already cost the United States 1.7 trillion dollars of their dollars. It will be necessary to add 500 billion for services to veterans by 2050.
The Iraqi conflict continued the one started in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001. In total, American military interventions in the region for more than twenty years have already cost nearly 6,000 billion to Washington and therefore to the Americans. It will be necessary to add another 2000 billion to cover services for former soldiers.
In Canadian dollars, these wars will therefore have committed more than 11,000 billion by the middle of the century. We repeat: eleven trillion. That’s about as much as the COVID-19 pandemic caused in cumulative losses to the global economy in 2021.
These balance sheets with rational projections are proposed by the project Cost of War from the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in Rhode Island. Spending estimates include US$2.1 billion from the Department of Defense, US$1.1 billion for loan repayments and the same again for counterterrorism measures from the Department of Homeland Security.
The assessment of the war in Iraq released last week was prepared by some thirty experts and academics. At the time of the withdrawal of the last foreign troops in Afghanistan in September 2021, another assessment, this time for all of the American wars in the Middle East, reported 900,000 dead and 10 trillion dollars spent. The various conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria have created approximately 38 million refugees.
The Anglo-American occupation of Iraq peaked in 2007, with the presence of 170,000 American soldiers. Much of the war has also been waged by private companies and mercenaries under contract with the Pentagon.
An invasion based on doctored evidence
The war launched against the country led by the dictator Saddam Hussein had been justified by doctored evidence of the presence of “weapons of mass destruction” and of collusion with the al-Qaeda group, defended until the Security Council of the United States. UN.
The years of occupation that followed caused approximately 300,000 victims, civilians, police, journalists, humanitarian workers, according to the report of the Watson Institute. To this must be added destruction totaling tens of billions of dollars and the looting of archaeological and artistic treasures of world significance. A chain reaction then amplified the destruction in neighboring countries and allowed the Islamic State group to create a regime of unparalleled barbarism for decades in modern history which nevertheless accumulates them.
The balance sheets of Operation Iraqi Freedom (its American name) are dreadful. At least as much as the catastrophic consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ottawa, then led by the Liberal Jean Chrétien, refused to engage with Washington and London without the approval of the Security Council, the only international body authorized to legitimize a military intervention. However, Canada had agreed to participate actively in the international intervention force in Afghanistan after the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Ten years later, in February 2011, nearly 3,000 Canadian soldiers were stationed in Afghanistan, more in proportion to the country’s population than the contribution of Italy, France or Germany. A total of 158 Canadian soldiers lost their lives there.