5.6 trillion taxpayer dollars wasted on the Religion of Peace, not to mention the thousands of young American lives destroyed. The world would be better off without the Islamic death cult.

Wall Street Journal - U.S. Spent $5.6 Trillion on Wars in Middle East and Asia. Figure for U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan since 2001 reflects costs that aren’t in Pentagon calculations.

By Gordon LuboldUpdated Nov. 8, 2017 1:18 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—U.S. wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Pakistan have cost American taxpayers $5.6 trillion since they began in 2001, according to a new study, a figure more than three times that of the Pentagon’s own estimates.

The Defense Department earlier this year estimated that the total cost of the conflicts since the 2001 attacks has amounted to about $1.5 trillion.

The new study, by the Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University, aims to reflect costs the Pentagon doesn’t include in its own calculations, since war costs aren’t borne by the Defense Department alone. As such, said the study’s author, Neta Crawford, the analysis isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison.

“War costs are more than what we spend in any one year on what’s called the pointy end of the spear,” she said in an interview. “There are all these other costs behind the spear, and there are consequences of using it, that we need to include.”

For example, the study’s estimates include recurring expenses such as long-term medical care for veterans and war costs incurred by the State Department. Costs also reflect related spending by the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and others.

However, the study doesn’t include other U.S. operations, such as assistance to the Philippines in a fight against Islamic State affiliates there, or other countries in Africa and Europe.

Sen. Jack Reed (D., R.I.) said studies such as the Brown report are critical because they show the true costs of war, as Congress debates budgets, tax cuts and wartime policies.

“I think it is very important because it describes and quantifies the costs beyond just the narrow bounds of the Department of Defense,” he said.

The cost of the wars also include borrowing money to pay for them, Mr. Reed said. According to the study, the accumulated interest expenses on the future cost of borrowing money to pay the wars could add an additional $8 trillion to the national debt over the next several decades.

“Even if we stopped [the wars] today, we would add $7.9 trillion to the national debt,” Mr. Reed said.

The Pentagon has said its estimate means that each of the more than 200 million U.S. taxpayers is responsible for about $7,740 in war costs. The Brown University study indicates each taxpayer has incurred nearly $24,000 in expenses.

The Pentagon didn’t respond to a request for comment on the report.

Ms. Crawford said the Pentagon wasn’t trying to be deceptive, but that its calculations simply don’t include the “real costs” of war.

For instance, the Pentagon’s estimates of the medical costs focus on care in war zones and immediately afterward, but don’t adequately account for long-term care or the follow-on costs once veterans are under the care of the VA.

Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said the future health-care cost for veterans is an unknown, but significant, number. The VA budget is growing rapidly, not only because of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, but to care for aging Vietnam vets too, Mr. Harrison said.

Likewise, as vets of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars grow older in coming decades, their medical expenses are likely to rise, he said.

“There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty about what those costs will be,” he said.