Report: U.S. War Costs Top 1 Trillion

The United States has spent more than $1 trillion on wars since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, a recently released congressional report says.

Adjusting for inflation, the outlays for conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere around the world make the [cost of the] "war on terrorism" second only to World War II.

The report, 'Cost of Major U.S. Wars,' by the Congressional Research Service attempts to compare war costs over a more than 230-year period -- from the American Revolution to the current day -- noting the difficulties associated with such a task.

Since the the 9/11 terror attacks, the United States has spent an estimated $1.15 trillion. World War II cost $4.1 trillion when converted to current dollars, although the tab in the 1940s was $296 billion.

World War II consumed a massive 36 percent of America's gross domestic product -- a broad measurement of the country's economic output. The post-9/11 cost of the conflicts is about 1 percent of GDP.

Source: CNN

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