Mohammed Al-Minshawi-Washington

In an interview with the "Face the Nation" program Sunday morning, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stressed that the administration of President Donald Trump aimed to reach an initial peace agreement with the Taliban to end the longest war in American history.

"Reducing the cost, preserving the lives of Americans and returning them to the homeland, are President Trump's most important goals in this agreement," Pompeo said.

The cost of the war - which lasted 18 years - remained an unanswered question in the American capital, especially when it comes to the financial cost. The cost of war is divided into a fraction related to human losses, and another linked to the material cost.

A study published by the Cost of War initiative, a joint research project between Brown and Boston American Universities, indicates that the cost of American wars since the attacks of September 11, 2001 until the end of FY 2020 reached $ 6.4 trillion.

This amount includes the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as military operations in Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, Syria, Libya and African countries.

Reports published in the "New York Times" indicated that the cost of the war in Afghanistan reached a trillion dollars, while other reports, governmental and non-governmental, indicated that the material cost of the war did not exceed a trillion dollars barrier. The discrepancy stems from the different methods of calculation, the inclusion of some elements and ignoring others.

The cost of war project considered that the cost of the war in Afghanistan exceeded a trillion dollars, in addition to killing more than 6,300 Americans, and injuring more than forty thousand others since 2001 until the signing of the peace agreement between the Taliban and the Trump administration in Doha this week.

Human cost
The newspaper "New York Times" that the number of American soldiers who participated in the war in Afghanistan over the past 18 years amounted to six hundred thousand soldiers at different periods. There are currently 12,000 of them in Afghanistan.

American soldiers in Afghanistan (Reuters)

And the cost of wars study examined the killing of 2,407 American fighters, in addition to nearly 3,943 US government contractors. It also indicated that 1150 people were killed between military and contractors from international coalition countries.

Nearly 141,000 Afghans were killed, including 43,000 Taliban, and nearly sixty thousand Afghan police and soldiers, in addition to 38,000 Afghan civilians.

Unclear financial cost
And the various American government agencies do not agree that there is a clear and specific cost to the American war in Afghanistan, which has become the longest war in American history.

A former ambassador who served in several countries in the Middle East, and who asked not to be named, said that it is difficult "to reach a specific number that reflects the exact financial cost of the war in Afghanistan, or other wars."

He adds that "every government agency has its own way of calculating what it has done and spent on it, and not all of these activities are collected from one government agency, that is, some estimates have greater credibility than others."

As Al-Jazeera Net viewed a number of these estimates, it was clear that there are items that are added in some cases, and others that are ignored.

For example, the American newspapers did not mention the costs of the cost of treating the wounded and disabled as a result of the war, or the cost of the Department of Homeland Security's expenditures related to combating and combating terrorism in its reports.

The former ambassador notes that "some elements of the material cost will continue for a number of years after the withdrawal, and there are thousands of injured Americans who will continue to receive treatment, financial rewards and pensions."

The amount of spending

Spending destination

778 billion dollars

Ministry of Defense (Pentagon)

44 billion dollars

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the International Development Agency (USAID)

200 billion dollars

The amount of interest on borrowed funds to supplement the defense and foreign ministries' expenditures

83 billion dollars

Training and arming the Afghan police and army

9 billion dollars

Anti-drug

30 billion dollars

Infrastructure rehabilitation cost

1,144 trillion dollars

Total*

* The source is a compilation of a number of official press, research and governmental sources.

Agreement now .. why?
The former ambassador believes that President Trump has promised to withdraw troops from the never-ending wars, as he does so in fulfillment of his electoral promise at the start of the election season, although "withdrawing from there will not achieve any of Washington's interests in Afghanistan."

He added, "Washington aimed to eliminate Al Qaeda, and this goal was largely accomplished, just as Washington realized after all these years of war that the Taliban is part of Afghan society that it cannot militarily eliminate."

Opponents of President Trump's decision to conclude a peace agreement with the Taliban are criticizing four aspects:

  • The Taliban has not been weakened or defeated.
  • Afghanistan is still the world's leading opium producer.
  • Most of the Afghan people suffer from poverty.
  • This agreement marks the gains Afghan women have made, especially in the area of ​​education.

A foreign ministry official spoke to the national radio, saying: "Agreement with the Taliban is the most prominent development since the fighting began there 18 years ago. There are many pending issues, and there is uncertainty in some issues, but our decision to withdraw the forces will be linked to conditions on the ground, and with guarantees that Afghanistan will not turn into a platform Terrorist threatening our country. "