ACCORDING TO THE United States Department of Defence, some $6.2 billion has been allocated for military operations against the so-called Islamic State.
Most of that money, or $5.4 billion, was allocated for the fiscal year of 2015, with the campaign costing an estimated $11 million a day.
However the United States’ previous conflicts in recent years make those figures seem like pocket change.
As the chart below shows, the total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan far exceed the money allocated to tackle Islamic State militants in the Middle East.
Even though the conflict in Afghanistan is winding down, it still cost the US more than $35 billion in the last year while another $30 billion was allocated to a Pentagon “slush fund” which is not directly related to the conflict but is used to avoid budget caps.
Since 2001, a total of $715 billion has been spent on the war in Afghanistan. The Iraqi war has cost in the region of $1.64 billion.
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