War in Afghanistan by the numbers

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Former CIA director on ‘disastrous outcome’ of US exit from Afghanistan

Former CIA Director General David Petraeus gives his analysis of Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal .

The nearly 20-year-long U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan has claimed thousands of lives and is now ending with the Taliban’s rapid takeover of the country. 

Here’s a look at the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, by the numbers, as America approaches its Aug. 31 deadline for finishing its military role there. 

The data is from Linda Bilmes of Harvard University’s Kennedy School and from the Brown University Costs of War project, according to the Associated Press. Because the U.S. between 2003 and 2011 fought the Afghanistan and Iraq wars simultaneously, and many American troops served tours in both wars, some figures as noted cover both post-9/11 U.S. wars. 

U.S soldiers stand guard along a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. (AP Photo/Shekib Rahmani)

The human cost of the war 

• American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2,448.
• U.S. contractors: 3,846.
• Afghan national military and police: 66,000.
• Other allied service members, including from other NATO member states: 1,144.
• Afghan civilians: 47,245.
• Taliban and other opposition fighters: 51,191.
• Aid workers: 444.
• Journalists: 72.

U.S. and Afghanistan following nearly 20 years of occupation 

• Percentage drop in infant mortality rate since U.S., Afghan and other allied forces overthrew the Taliban government, which had sought to restrict women and girls to the home: About 50.
• Percentage of Afghan teenage girls able to read today: 37.
• Percentage of U.S. population born since the 2001 attacks plotted by al-Qaida leaders who were sheltering in Afghanistan: Roughly one out of every four.

Hundreds of people gather near a U.S. Air Force C-17 transport plane at a perimeter at the international airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday.  (AP Photo/Shekib Rahmani)

Oversight by Congress 

• Date Congress authorized U.S. forces to go after culprits in Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: Sept. 18, 2001.
• Number of times U.S. lawmakers have voted to declare war in Afghanistan: 0.
• Number of times lawmakers on Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee addressed costs of Vietnam War, during that conflict: 42
• Number of times lawmakers in same subcommittee have mentioned costs of Afghanistan and Iraq wars, through mid-summer 2021: 5.
• Number of times lawmakers on Senate Finance Committee have mentioned costs of Afghanistan and Iraq wars since Sept. 11, 2001, through mid-summer 2021: 1.

Costs of the war 

• Estimated amount of direct Afghanistan and Iraq war costs that the United States has debt-financed as of 2020: $2 trillion.
• Estimated interest costs by 2050: Up to $6.5 trillion.
• Amount Bilmes estimates the United States has committed to pay in health care, disability, burial and other costs for roughly 4 million Afghanistan and Iraq veterans: more than $2 trillion.
• Period those costs will peak: after 2048.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.