In their joint report — Body Count: Casualty Figures after 10 Years of the “War on Terror” — Physicians for Social Responsibility, Physicians for Global Survival, and the Nobel Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War concluded that this number is staggering, with at least 1.3 million lives lost in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan alone since the onset of the war following September 11, 2001.
However, the report notes, this is a conservative estimate, and the total number killed in the three countries “could also be in excess of 2 million, whereas a figure below 1 million is extremely unlikely.”
Furthermore, the researchers do not look at other countries targeted by U.S.-led war, including Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Syria, and beyond.
The total U.S. budgetary cost of war since 2001 is $4.79 trillion, according to a report released this week from Brown University’s Watson Institute. …
Neta Crawford of Boston University, the author of the report, included interest on borrowing, future veterans needs, and the cost of homeland security in her calculations. …
There are even more costs of war that Crawford does not include, she writes. For instance, “I have not included here state and local government expenses related to medical care of veterans and homeland security. Nor do I calculate the macro economic costs of war for the U.S. economy.” She also notes that she does not add the cost of war for other countries, nor try to put a dollar figures on the cost in human lives.
http://theintercept.com/2016/09/14/latest-estimate-pegs-cost-of-wars-at-nearly-5-trillion/
So what now?
Clinton has staked out more hawkish positions than Obama, dating back to her vote for the war in Iraq when she was a New York senator. She kept that reputation when she was secretary of State, becoming one of the leading voices in the administration pushing for military intervention in Libya.
She has also sought a more active role for the U.S. military in the Syrian civil war, the bloody, 5-year-old conflict that has empowered Islamic State militants while pitting rebels against government forces. Clinton and other Obama advisors wanted to train and arm some opposition groups, but Obama declined, though he relented after she left his Cabinet, with the CIA delivering weapons to some groups starting in 2013.
In addition, she has pushed for a no-fly zone to protect civilians fleeing the conflict, and she’s suggested putting U.S. forces on the ground to fight Islamic State, though she cautions that she would not seek a full-scale combat mission.
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-clinton-obama-differences-20160729-snap-htmlstory.html
