Afghanistan Weekly Reader: $1 Billion per Week for Ten Years of War

Yesterday President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron confirmed their commitment to winding down the Afghanistan war by the end of 2014. Next year U.S. and allied forces will transition to an advisory role, leaving local forces in charge of Afghanistan’s security. Critics call this hasty and irresponsible. But after ten years it’s hard to see how a war could wind down more slowly.
A large majority of the American public believes the Afghanistan war is not worth fighting, and it’s not hard to see why. Over the past ten years the U.S. has spent more than $550 billion in Afghanistan alone. That averages out to over $1 billion per week. Compared to the average U.S. household income of less than $1,000 per week, $1 billion is simply staggering.
$1 billion per week for the past ten years. There are better ways to spend taxpayer dollars than a war that should have ended years ago.

From ASG
3/12/12
One Civilian, One Year In Afghanistan: $570,000
Afghanistan Study Group by Mary Kaszynski
Soldiers aren’t the only Americans serving in Afghanistan. Some 1,142 U.S. civilians from the Department of State and other non-defense agencies are currently in Afghanistan. Deploying a civilian is cheaper than deploying a soldier, but it is still expensive: up to $570,000 per year, according to the most recent estimate from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction.
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