Wars cost 300,000 lives, $4 trillion: report (by William Spain)

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- A report released by Brown University in conjunction with the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks has pegged the cost of the ensuing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan at more than 300,000 lives lost and $4 trillion spent. The "Costs of War" study also found that indirect deaths, those related to malnutrition, damaged infrastructure and environmental degradation "may far outnumber deaths from combat." While those are difficult to precisely measure, they could push the actual toll north of 1 million. And some of the real costs will not be evident for decades as "many of the wars' costs are invisible to Americans, buried in a variety of budgets, and so have not been counted or assessed." The study noted that more than 6,500 U.S. soldiers have died in the wars "and levels of injury and illness among those who have returned are startling, with a quarter-million disability claims filed with the Veterans Administration."