Every injured US soldier will cost US $2 million in long run: Report
Iran Press TV
Thu May 16, 2013 1:46PM GMT
A new study has revealed that the US government will spend around USD 2 million in the long run on every solider injured in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
According to a study conducted by Harvard’s Kennedy School in March, each of the 866,181 US soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to cost the government approximately USD 2 million in long-term medical costs.
The total cost for all soldiers injured came in at $1.7 trillion, including USD 800 billion already allocated for injured veterans and the cost of long-term care for an extra 50,000 casualties currently counted by the Pentagon, said Linda Bilmes, author of the report.
“These costs include the immediate requirements to provide medical care for the wounded, as well as the accrued liabilities for providing lifetime medical costs and disability compensation for those who have survived injuries,” Bilmes said.
The author warned that the costs will increase further over the next 40 years due to the unprecedented growth in the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense budgets.
“The legacy of decisions taken during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars will dominate future federal budgets for decades to come,” Bilmes added.
The US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost American taxpayers USD 4-6 trillion in the long run -- making them the most expensive wars in US history.
In 2003, the US and Britain invaded Iraq in blatant violation of international law and under the pretext of finding weapons of mass destruction. But no such weapons were ever found in Iraq.
More than one million Iraqis were killed as the result of the US-led invasion and subsequent occupation of the country, according to the California-based investigative organization, Project Censored.
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