- The United States has spent $4.3 trillion on foreign conflicts since the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001
- Just $1.9 trillion of this figure has officially been declared for this purpose by officials
- The amount includes overseas spending in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Pakistan alongside Homeland Security spending on U.S. soil
- Experts believe that the figure may rise during the presidency of Donald Trump
The United States has spent more than $5 trillion in foreign conflicts since 2001, the year the U.S. invaded Afghanistan.
The news comes from a Brown University analysis, which also put the cost of military pension at trillions more.
The Costs of War report found that the U.S. has spent $880 billion in defense spending in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, and Pakistan in the past 16 years.
Meanwhile, a further $780 billion was spent on beefing up Homeland Security over the same period.
The figure totals $5.6 trillion including this year's estimates.
Less than $2 trillion of the total amount has been officially accounted for by defense officials as overseas contingency operations funding.
This reveals a shocking gap between the figure reported to the American public and the actual amount of taxpayer’s cash spent on overseas conflicts.
In fact, the report estimates that overseas conflicts have cost $23,386 per US taxpayer.
"The difference between this Costs of War Project estimate and other estimates is that it includes not only Pentagon/Department of Defense military spending, but other war-related costs, including war-related spending by the State Department, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security," said the report.
Meanwhile, the amount that the U.S. government is spending on Veterans has also shot up by around $300 billion, while analysts predict that the figure spent on Veterans benefits over the next 40 years will reach a further $1 trillion.
Study author Neta Crawford also predicted that the costs could rise in the coming years under the leadership of Donald Trump.
“There is no end in sight to the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan and the associated operations in Pakistan,” she wrote.
Officials have already $70 billion more in overseas contingency spending in next year’s budget.
“Every war costs money before, during and after it occurs — as governments prepare for, wage, and recover from armed conflict by replacing equipment, caring for the wounded and repairing infrastructure destroyed in the fighting,” Crawford added.
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