Paper
Military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan have entered their ninth and tenth years
respectively and have produced $1.1 trillion in direct costs through 2010.
The federal budget has been in deficit since 2001, and by the end of 2010, debt held by the public had
risen by more than $5.7 trillion, to a level exceeding 60% of GDP. A large part of this
rapid increase was due to the recession of 2008 and the unprecedented fiscal policy
response to the financial crisis. But the consequences of deficit spending to finance war
activities have been considerable. Thus far, post-9/11 war spending has increased
indebtedness by $1.3 trillion or around $4,000 per person, raised the ratio of public debt
to GDP by 9–10 percentage points, roughly a third of the total increase since 2001, and
probably raised long-term interest rates by 30–35 basis points.