U.S. military expenditures last year were at least $1.5 trillion, writes Costs of War contributor @david-vine.bsky.social. "If Congress grants Trump’s requests, we’ll be spending $2 trillion to $3 trillion on the military and its wars." www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Think Trump’s $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request is outrageous? This'll blow your mind.

We already spend at least that much on the US military each year, and maybe a lot more.

motherjones.com

The U.S. spent more than $20 billion on military aid to Israel between fall 2023 and fall 2025, reports The New York Times, citing Costs of War. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/30/u...

Troy Jackson Apologizes for Generalizing Jewish Mainers’ Views on Gaza

Mr. Jackson, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Maine, had told an interviewer that some Jews in the state choose not to accuse the Israeli government of carrying out a genocide “only because” they ...

nytimes.com

Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, as many as 210,000 Iraqi civilians were killed, along with 4,599 U.S. service members. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2026/0...

U.S. withdraws forces in Iraq as balance of power shifts to Iran

U.S. military forces departed from bases in Iraq on Wednesday, a milestone in two bloody decades of American involvement.

washingtonpost.com

"The administration steals from taxpayers to enrich the powerful and commit probable war crimes abroad," writes Sarah Jones at @nymag.com, citing Costs of War research on the $4.7 billion spent on operations in Venezuela, the Caribbean, and Eastern Pacific. nymag.com/intelligence...

America Last

Trump promised to put ordinary people first. A year in, they have fallen to the bottom of his priority list.

nymag.com

Tomorrow, join the @gamechangerspolicy.bsky.social webinar, “Cutting the Military Budget While Improving Real Security” Date: Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026 4 p.m./5 p.m. ET Register for the webinar: bit.ly/GCWebinarLabor @ips-dc.org @nationalpriorities.bsky.social @costsofwar.bsky.social

From 2020-2024, the U.S. government invested over twice as much money in five weapons companies as it spent on diplomacy and international aid. costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/paper/profit...

Join us for the @gamechangerspolicy.bsky.social webinar: “Cutting the Military Budget While Improving Real Security” Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 4pm ET With Lindsay Koshgarian, @sunjeevbery.bsky.social, @hannahomestead.bsky.social and Costs of War's Heidi Peltier. Register: bit.ly/GCWebinarLabor

Even some U.S. defense workers agree: the military’s emissions are a huge problem for the climate. costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/paper/uk-and...

A Navy official revealed that eight service members have attempted suicide on the U.S.S. Lincoln. [1/3] www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

Eight USS Lincoln personnel have attempted suicide, US navy confirms

Hung Cao, acting US navy secretary, answered questions from US senator Kirsten Gillibrand in a letter

theguardian.com

While the decision to go to war can seemingly be made in an instant, the human and economic consequences can last for generations.

Many have made bold claims about the economic benefits the U.S. military brings to Hawai‘i. The facts show the military’s contribution is significantly smaller than most people think. thediplomat.com/2026/09/bust...

Busting the Myths of the US Military’s Presence in Hawai‘i

As land leases come up for renewal, a new report reveals the facts about the U.S. Armed Forces’ impacts in the Pacific Islands.

thediplomat.com

Great article in the Brown Daily Herald with background on our collaboration with Mwatana for Human Rights on recent research on civilian deaths in Yemen: www.browndailyherald.com/article/us-a...

U.S. airstrikes in Yemen caused at least 576 civilian casualties between 2023 and 2025, Watson study estimates

The report examines the human cost of 46 airstrikes from two military operations since December 2023.

browndailyherald.com

U.S. news organizations’ 9/11 anniversary coverage failed to fully inform the public of the true costs of the wars that followed, writes Elliot Negin, citing our research.  themoneytrail.substack.com/p/us-media-c...

U.S. media coverage of the 9/11 anniversary didn’t tell the whole story

Nearly 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001. Post-9/11 wars killed more than 900,000.

themoneytrail.substack.com

“A lot of these human war costs are not ones that we Americans are always aware of when we think about war.” The reverberating impacts of war lead to many more deaths than the war itself, notes Stephanie Savell on @btlradionews.bsky.social. btlonline.org/25-years-lat...

25 Years Later, U.S. Post-9/11 Wars Globally Caused 4.5 Million Deaths, Cost $8 Trillion

September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows' Elizabeth Miller and Costs of War Project at Brown University's Watson Institute's Stephanie Savell on the U.S. post-9/11 wars $8 trillion cost, which l...

btlonline.org

"Within seconds, the drone released a glide bomb, designed to allow operators to identify and strike targets with a high degree of accuracy." Witnesses describe an Israeli drone in Gaza that killed a child and a medic. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...

‘Run! Get away!’: witnesses recount Israeli ‘double tap’ strike that killed child and medic in Gaza

When Mohammad Abdul Zinati, 15, rushed to help a man wounded in a bomb attack, he had no time to react before he too was hit

theguardian.com

Renewed displacement and war in Yemen, where a recent @mhren.bsky.social report in collaboration with Costs of War showed U.S. airstrike incidents since Dec. 2023 resulted in at least 576 civilian casualties.  www.theguardian.com/world/2026/s...

‘We left everything behind’: 125,000 people displaced as war reignites in Yemen

Fierce fighting has forced people to abandon their homes, leaving everything behind to seek shelter in refugee camps

theguardian.com

“Thirty-seven and a half billion dollars, that’s not a serious number. There’s no way it’s less than $100 billion — but then that’s only the tip of the iceberg.” Costs of War contributor Linda Bilmes on the cost of war with Iran: news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...

Linda Bilmes is doing the math — Harvard Gazette

Budget analyst has made it her life’s mission to elucidate the heavy toll of war: "If we don’t account for something, we don’t value it."

news.harvard.edu

New CBO estimates for the Iran war cost don't include costs of recent ⁠U.S. strikes on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz. It also did not factor in the borrowing expenses associated with financing the war. [THREAD] www.reuters.com/world/middle...

Iran war cost hits $38 billion, forecast to rise $3 billion a month, CBO says

The war is expected to increase U.S. inflation by 0.5% in the first three months of 2027, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

reuters.com

The rise in authoritarian policing we’ve seen in recent years has made its way into K-12 schools, writes Costsof War co-founder @cathylutz.bsky.social and @lutzfernandez.bsky.social. www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Electric Shocks for Kids and the Push to Militarize Schools

Electric-shock gloves used on students in Nebraska are the latest sign of how policing, surveillance, and military technology have entered American schools.

thenation.com

#OnTheAir COUNTERPOINT airs Mondays 8-9:30pmET wpkn.org 89.5FM Bgpt #CT: Elizabeth Miller of 9/11 Families for @peacefultomorrows.bsky.social & Stephanie Savell Dir. Cost of War project reflect on the 9/11 attacks impact on US security, for. policy & civil liberties 25 years later.

Costs of War’s Heidi Peltier speaks at @nukesofhazard.bsky.social 's #CACNP2026 on the trillion-dollar military budget. “In the case of military contract spending, it has routinely been shown that roughly 30-40% of spending results in waste, fraud and abuse.” www.youtube.com/live/ERH6PZr...

2026 Annual Conference — $1 Trillion and Counting: The Pentagon Budget Squeezing Our Real Security

YouTube video by Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation (CACNP)

youtube.com

Heidi Peltier with @costsofwar.bsky.social: The estimated cost of the GWOT that began in 2001 will be at least $8T. The war in Iran has cost Americans more than $100B in fuel costs alone. #CACNP2026

"Both state policy and a culture that feels comfortable depicting our religion as insidious... has made it easy for a lot of Americans to squint at a Muslim man and see one of the bad guys," writes Meher Ahmad, citing our research. www.nytimes.com/2026/09/15/o...

Opinion | So Much Lies Hidden Beneath the Mamdani-Giuliani Handshake

Who is allowed to mourn Sept. 11 — and its aftermath?

nytimes.com

“The so-called ‘War on Terror’ never ended in Yemen,” said Costs of War director Stephanie Savell on a new report from Yemen-based @mhren.bsky.social, in collaboration with Costs of War. www.commondreams.org/news/us-airs...

Report Details 500+ Yemeni Civilian Casualties From 2023-25 US Airstrikes | Common Dreams

"The so-called 'War on Terror' never ended in Yemen," said Costs of War Project director Stephanie Savell. "This report will allow people to hold the US government accountable for the deaths and destr...

commondreams.org

U.S. allies have borne significant costs in the post-9/11 wars, in terms of both dollars and lives. Besides the U.S., the top 5 countries to send troops to the war in Afghanistan were the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Canada. costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/paper/costs-...

Nearly 3,000 Americans died as a result of the attacks on 9/11. Twenty-five years later, the impacts of the post-9/11 wars have reverberated both at home and abroad. A few of the costs: [THREAD] costsofwar.watson.brown.edu/overview

Post-9/11 wars fought by the United States killed millions of people when direct and indirect deaths are counted.

4.7 Million Dead, $8 Trillion: Counting the Devastating Human & Economic Costs of the Post‑9/11 Wars

As part of our weeklong coverage marking the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks and the launch of the United States’ so-called war on terror, we take a look at the human, financial and envir...

democracynow.org

Breaking: U.S. airstrikes in Yemen Since Dec. 2023 resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties, according to a new report from Yemen-based @mhren.bsky.social in collaboration with Costs of War. [THREAD]

“All of these reverberating costs of war also lead to casualties.” Costs of War’s co-director Stephanie Savell talks to @news.dw.com on the costs of 25 years of the “War on Terror”: www.youtube.com/watch?v=P97p...

The War on Terror 25 years on: Did it make us safer? | DW News

YouTube video by DW News

youtube.com

Twenty-five years later, our research examines the high costs of the post-9/11 wars.