- Joined
- Mar 13, 2015
LMAOAfghanistan and Iraq weren't wiping out an entire anybody. It was fighting with one hand behind their back.
And as the US pullout from Afghanistan nears the one year mark, Brown University's Costs of War Project report details just how deadly they've been. It counts how many people have been killed by the "United States' post-9/11 wars" in these three countries, along with others.
The report accounts for deaths in Afghanistan and Pakistan between October 2001 and October 2018, and in Iraq between March 2003 and September 2021.
In October 2001, the US invaded Afghanistan to defeat the al-Qaeda and the Taliban, and 20 years later, on August 30, 2021, the US completed a chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan as the Taliban regained full control of the country.
During the weeks around the pullout, a suicide bomber killed 200 people in Kabul, and a US drone strike would later kill 10 civilians in the final days of the war.
In March 2003, the US invaded Iraq and overthrew Saddam Hussein's regime under the pretense that the regime had weapons of mass destruction, most notably nuclear weapons. The US pulled out in 2011, paving the way for the rise of ISIS and the re-deployment of US troops.
Pakistan is a little murkier. Since 9/11, the US has conducted hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan and used the country as a military staging area — but Islamabad has been accused of harboring terrorists as well.
The Costs of War report (which compiled data from governments, NGOs, media, and more) notes that the actual number of deaths are low because of the limits documenting death in conflict zones.
"For example, tens of thousands of civilians may have died in retaking Mosul and other cities from ISIS but their bodies have likely not been recovered," the report said.
It also notes that the death toll is only direct deaths — not indirect deaths, such as "loss of access to food, water, health facilities, electricity or other infrastructure."
Here's what they found.
6,951 US military deaths.
Iraq: 4,550 deaths.
Afghanistan: 2,401 deaths.
Pakistan: 0 deaths.
There were also 21 civilian DOD deaths, including six in Afghanistan and 15 in Iraq, the Cost of War report notes.
7,820 US contractor deaths.
Iraq: 3,793 deaths.
Afghanistan: 3,937 deaths.
Pakistan: 90 deaths.
109,154 national military and police deaths.
Iraq: 41,726 deaths.
Afghanistan: 58,596 deaths.
Pakistan: 8,832 deaths.
1,464 Allied troop deaths.
Iraq: 323 deaths.
Afghanistan: 1,141 deaths.
Pakistan: 0 deaths.
244,124 — 266,427 civilians.
Iraq: 182,272 — 204,575 deaths.
Afghanistan: 38,480 deaths.
Pakistan: 23,372 deaths.
109,396 — 114,471 opposition fighters.
Iraq: 34,806 — 39,881 deaths.
Afghanistan: 42,100 deaths.
Pakistan: 32,490 deaths.
362 journalists and media workers.
Iraq: 245 deaths.
Afghanistan: 54 deaths.
Pakistan: 63 deaths.
566 humanitarian and NGO workers.
Iraq: 62 deaths.
Afghanistan: 409 deaths.
Pakistan: 95 deaths.
479,858 — 507,236 total deaths.
Iraq: 267,792 — 295,170 deaths.
Afghanistan: 147,124 deaths.
Pakistan: 64,942 deaths.
In Operation Desert Storm, a ground offensive was supported with extensive air strikes on every significant element of Iraq's dual-use power, communications, transportation, and industrial sectors. In a war that had the potential to become protracted, it made sense to destroy Iraq's ability to refine oil and produce ammunition, as well as its stockpiled reserves. At the same time, U.S. Air Force planners sought to cause only temporary damage to Iraq's economic infrastructure by precisely targeting easy-to-replace elements of key facilities rather than destroying such facilities outright.
Yet, these plans were thwarted by standard operating procedures that were deeply ingrained in the military community. Wary of underestimating Iraq, Desert Storm planners inflicted massive damage on the country's economic infrastructure. For example, instead of targeting rapidly replaceable electricity transformer yards and refined oil storage sites, U.S. forces destroyed hard-to-replace generator halls and cracking (distillation) towers. Initially, Tomahawk cruise missiles were used to dispense carbon graphite filaments over power stations, minimizing permanent damage while still causing blackouts. Yet, these sites were later used as bomb dumps for carrier-based aircraft returning to ship, rendering the less-destructive effects of the cruise missile strikes meaningless. Desert Storm also highlighted the unforeseen consequences of disrupting the highly interconnected critical infrastructure of a modern industrialized country, as attacks on dual-use power facilities caused cascading damage throughout the water purification and sanitation systems, exacerbating a public health crisis.
The allies' air war wreaked major destruction on Iraq's oil industry and modern infrastructure. For example, by the end of the war only two of Iraq's 20 electricity-generating plants were functioning, generating less than four percent of the pre-war output of 9,000 megawatts.18 The report of the United Nations mission that visited Iraq in March 1991 concluded:
The recent conflict has wrought near-apocalyptic results upon the economic infrastructure of what had been, until January 1991, a rather highly urbanized and mechanized society. Now, most means of modern life support have been destroyed or rendered tenuous. Iraq has, for some time to come, been relegated to a pre-industrial age, butwith all the disabilities of post-industrial dependency on an intensive use of energy and technology.19
Estimates about the extent of damage in Iraq vary wildly. Then-Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Saadoun Hammadi in February put the cost of repairing the damage in Iraq from the air war -- to roads, bridges, electrical-generating plants, oil refineries and other facilities -- at $200 billion.20 One U.S. official interviewed by Reuters indicated that such a figure was not off the mark:
The Iraqis spent at least $160 billion on infrastructure projects in the 1980s. Assuming that most of them have been damaged or destroyed, reconstruction would cost considerably more in 1991 dollars.21
The reports of civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure in Afghanistan strongly indicate that the force used by the U.S. was excessive and did not adhere to the principle of proportionality. For instance, just four days after the U.S. initiated bombing, 76 civilians were reported dead and 100 injured. By October 30, Kandahar had lost electricity and running water. The International Committee of the Red Cross facilities, marked clearly and containing humanitarian supplies, were hit twice by U.S. bombs. Professor Marc Herold, an economist at the University of New Hampshire, compiled data from various sources, including European media and firsthand accounts, revealing that between October 7 and December 10, the U.S. bombing campaign killed 3,767 civilians. This number doesn't even include deaths due to landmines, starvation, or disease.
The disproportionate nature of the U.S. military campaign is further highlighted by the devastating weaponry employed, such as fuel air bombs, B-52 carpet bombing, BLU-82s, and CBU-87 cluster bombs. Cluster bombs, in particular, break into over 200 smaller explosives designed to detonate upon impact but often remain unexploded, posing ongoing dangers to civilians. Despite appeals from organizations like Amnesty International, the U.S. continued using cluster bombs, risking violations of international laws against indiscriminate attacks.
Furthermore, the military actions disrupted the delivery of essential food supplies, exacerbating the risk of starvation and leading to a massive refugee crisis. Afghan widows in Kabul reported abrupt halts in humanitarian aid. Additionally, the country's infrastructure was targeted, including Kabul's main telephone exchange, the electrical grid in Kandahar, and Afghanistan's largest hydroelectric power station near the Kajakai dam. Even after the ousting of the Taliban government and the uncertainty surrounding Osama bin Laden's location, U.S. bombings persisted, resulting in further civilian casualties.
In summary, this military campaign cannot be deemed proportionate under international law, given the overwhelming evidence of civilian casualties, damage to infrastructure, and the use of excessively destructive weaponry.
