US spent almost $ 6 trillion on wars since 9/11

In the wake of September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre in New York, the United States has spent over US $ 5.9 trillion on wars abroad that have resulted in the deaths of an estimated 500,000 people.

Sputnik, while referring to 'Costs of War,' a research published this month, by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University in the Rhode Island, reported that approximately 370,000 people have died directly from violence related to US wars, while many more have died from malnutrition and devastated infrastructure.

An estimated 250,000 civilians have died in American-led wars and over 10.1 million people have been displaced. In addition, 6,900 US military personnel, 7,800 US military contractors and over 110,000 enemy fighters have been killed in US-led wars since 9/11, Sputnik reported.

However, the figures mentioned above do not count more than a half million deaths reported to have taken place in the Syrian war, especially after the US government and other powers tried to topple President Bashar Al-Assad's government in 2011.

At present, the United States in alliance with more than 70 world nations have been conducting military operations against the Islamic State militants, also known as the Daesh terrorist group in Syria and Iraq since September 2014. The deadly operations are, however, 'not authorized' either by the Syrian government or the United Nations Security Council.

Meanwhile, the figures mentioned in the reports widely differ from that of the Pentagon's "because it includes not only war appropriations made to the Department of Defense - spending in the war zones of Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and in other places the government designates as sites of 'overseas contingency operations,' - but also includes spending across the federal government that is a consequence of these wars."

In March 2018, the US Department of Defense claimed that it had only spent 1.5 trillion USD on 'war-related' expenses since , September 11 attacks.

"Unless the US immediately repays the money borrowed for war, there will also be future interest payments. We estimate that interest payments could total over $7.9 trillion by 2053," the report warned.

Sputnik further quoted political science professor Neta Crawford saying, "There is no strategy for ending the wars."

"The fact that the US keeps spending huge sums for wars that, at least in Afghanistan, are in a stalemate, and in Iraq and Syria, are unresolved, is a long-term budgetary problem which will affect future generations," she added.