The Iraq War Ledger

Center for American Progress

As we approach the date of full U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, now is an appropriate time to begin to weigh the total costs and benefits to U.S. national security from our intervention there. On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush stood aboard the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared to the country and to the world that “Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.”

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Human costs

• Total deaths: Between 110,663 and 119,380
• Coalition deaths: 4,712
• U.S. deaths: 4,394
• U.S. wounded: 31,768
• U.S. deaths as a percentage of coalition deaths: 93.25 percent
• Iraqi Security Force deaths: At least 9,451
• Total coalition and ISF deaths: At least 14,163
• Iraqi civilian deaths: Between 96,037 and 104,7542
• Non-Iraqi contractor deaths: At least 463
• Internally displaced persons: 2.6 million
• Refugees: 1.9 million

Financial costs

• Cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom: $748.2 billion
• Projected total cost of veterans’ health care and disability: $422 billion to $717 billion

Strategic costs

The foregoing costs could conceivably be justified if the Iraq intervention had improved the United States’ strategic position in the Middle East. But this is clearly not the case. The Iraq war has strengthened anti-U.S. elements and made the position of the United States and its allies more precarious.

(Original here.)