2010 average American weekly income: $1,200. Weekly war costs: $1,800,000,000

Mary Kaszynski
Afghanistan Study Group

Public support for the Afghanistan war is at an all-time low. According to the most recent PEW poll, a majority of Americans (56%) want to bring the troops home as soon as possible. Only 38%  want to maintain troop levels “until the situation has stabilized”.

When the poll was conducted back in June 2011, the numbers were virtually the same. A year earlier, however, the outlook was very different – 53% wanted to keep troops in Afghanistan, while 40% wanted to remove them. Going back even further, we see that support for the war has declined steadily decline over time.

Americans now see that the few benefits of the war in Afghanistan are not worth the enormous costs. At a time when many American families are struggling, the amount of money spent on the war in Afghanistan doesn’t make sense.

Consider these numbers. In 2010 the average American household income was about $1,200 per week. That same year the US spent $1,800,000,000 per week on the Afghanistan war. Household food costs average about $120 per week. In 2010 we spent $520,000 per week on food aid to Afghanistan. The average American student graduating from college in 2010 had over $25,000 in loans. That year the US spent $11.6 billion to train and equip some 300,000 Afghan security forces – that’s $38,000 per troop.

Over the past ten years we have spent over $500 billion in direct war costs alone. Well spent or not, we cannot get it back. What we can do is consider seriously what we should spend going forward. In a couple of weeks the administration will request $88 billion for next year’s war costs. Aren’t there better uses for taxpayer dollars?

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