War efforts in both Iraq and Afganistan an increasing economic strain on U.S.

Waging wars is expensive. It is perhaps the most expensive thing that a country can undertake to do. The more a war drags on the more expensive it becomes both in terms of lives lost and money spent. The United States has been involved in two wars now in two seperate countries in Afganistan and Iraq since 2001 and 2003 respectively. They have both been expensive undertakings but as each year goes by and the conflicts drag on their costs are rising as well. Listed below is a year by year chart of the total costs of both conflicts since thay began and their costs so far. The numbers are estimates and they come from the U.S. Government Accounting Office.



War spending in Iraq and Afganistan:


2001 ----- 18 billion
2002 ----- 20 billion
2003 ----- 80 billion
2004 ----- 65 billion
2005 ----- 110 billion
2006 ----- 118 billion
2007 ----- 170 billion (projected total)
2008 ----- 161 billion (projected total)