“We drew from sources including various news reports, The Brookings Institute’s Iraq Index, and the Costs of War Project to document money and blood spent on the Iraq war between 2003 and 2011.
-189,000: Direct war deaths, which doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands more that died due to war-related hardships.
-4,488: U.S. service personnel killed directly.
-32,223: Troops injured (not including PTSD).
-134,000: Civilians killed directly.
-655,000: Persons who have died in Iraq since the invasion that would not have died if the invasion had not occurred.
-150: Reporters killed.
-2.8 million: Persons who remain either internally displaced or have fled the country.
-$1.7 trillion: Amount in war expenses spent by the U.S. Treasury Department as through Fiscal Year 2013.
-$5,000: Amount spent per second.
-$350,000: Cost to deploy one American military member.
-$490 billion: Amount in war benefits owed to war veterans.
-$7 trillion: Projected interest payments due by 2053 (because the war was paid for with borrowed money).
-$20 billion: Amount paid to KBR, contractor responsible for equipment and services.
-$3 billion: Amount of KBR payments Pentagon auditors considered “questionable.”
-$60 billion: Amount paid for reconstruction, (which was ruled largely a waste due to corruption and shoddy work.)
-$4 billion: Amount owed to the U.S. by Iraq before the invasion.
-1.6 million: Gallons of oil used by U.S. forces each day in Iraq (at $127.68 a barrel).
-$12 billion: Cost per month of the war by 2008.
-$7 billion: Amount owed to Iraq by the U.S. after the war (mostly due to fraud).
-$20 billion: Annual air conditioning cost.
Missing: $546 million in spare parts; 190,000 guns, including 110,000 AK-47s.
-40 percent: Increase in Iraqi oil production.
-$5 billion: Revenue from Iraqi oil in 2003.
-$85 billion: Revenue from Iraqi oil in 2011.
-$150 billion: Amount oil companies are expected to invest in oil development over the next decade.
-$75 billion: Approximate amount expected to go to American subcontracting companies, largest of all Halliburton.
-0: Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction found (though a bunch of chems were discovered).
Perhaps most importantly, this list doesn’t account for the emotional damage caused to service members and their families as well as the destruction to the homes, social fabric, and psyche of the Iraqi people.” [The 25th of the month used for date sorting purposes only.]
– Michael B Kelley and Geoffrey Ingersoll, “The Staggering Cost of the Last Decade’s US War in Iraq – In Numbers,” BusinessInsider.com, June 20, 2014