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The U.S.’s Financial Costs for War in Afghanistan

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  • Description

    FBN’s Gerri Willis on the financial toll of the Afghanistan war.

  • Duration 3:21
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Tonight the president will address the nation and promised to do what he's Ben promising to do for months.

Bring our troops home from Afghanistan now the longest war in American history obviously the most important cost has been that of American lives.

More than 16100.

US men and women have died there.

But there is another cost and that is the price tag for American taxpayers.

The US has already run up of 443.

Billion dollar -- in Afghanistan.

And much of that has come in the last few years since the war began ten years ago the amount spent has increased.

Every year in 2008 the US spent 43 billion dollars this year will hit a 118 billion dollars.

The price tag goes up as the number boots on the ground increases.

Some reports have a cost coming in at one million dollars per soldier per year believe it or not.

Now tonight many predict the president will announce a draw down of 101000 troops by the end of the year but the savings will not be that big.

The center for new American security estimates if Obama were to bring home 151000 troops.

Taxpayers would only see seven billion dollars returned this year at seven out of a 118 billion.

And that's just the war in Afghanistan including Iraq total spending over the last decade is nearly one and a half trillion dollars.

Are almost the entire deficit for a year.

Look no -- is going to begrudge our men and women in uniform the money they need to succeed in their mission and they keep them safe.

But these dollars are just for our military.

Much of the goes to the Afghan government and Afghan forces and that has some people fired up.

The question the president faces.

-- we all face is quite simple.

Will we choose to rebuild America or Afghanistan.

In light of our nation's fiscal perils we cannot do both.

And the senator has reasons to be concerned back in 2005 the US spent only a little over a billion dollars on Afghan security forces.

This year we're heading to twelve billion.

Now that money isn't producing results economically either get this the GDP of Afghanistan was only 27 billion dollars and 2010.

That's less than a quarter of what we spent on the country this year.

That is push the mayors of this country's biggest cities into a foreign policy fight for the first time since the war in Vietnam.

The US conference of mayors this -- says the money spent overseas might have stopped them from having to lay -- 28000 people last month alone.

Plus even if every troop comes home the costs are going to stop there.

And international relations professor at Boston University says this.

The total cost of the war should not be measured solely by the costs of financing the troops it should also include long term costs of the war.

Primarily veterans' benefits for returning soldiers who will require medical and mental health services for many years to come.

And if that's -- -- to commence our commander in cheap enough is enough may be in an election year this will.

A recent Washington Post poll shows more than half of Americans don't think the war is worth it.

Look whether or not supported this war from the start he can't deny the cost it's happening.

We are -- fourteen trillion dollars in the whole our national debt and fourteen million of us are looking for work.

Cities like Detroit and Cleveland need to be our focus not Baghdad.

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