Here is a close look at the cost in lives, dollars and resources spent in Afghanistan over the last two decades.
2001
This is the year the United States launched the war in Afghanistan. Operation Enduring Freedom began Oct. 7, 2001, as part of President George W. Bush’s wider war against terrorism after the 9/11 attacks.
2014
The year the war officially ended. On Dec. 28, U.S. and NATO military officials held a ceremony at their headquarters in Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, to mark the occasion. President Barack Obama, in a statement announcing a troop drawdown, called it “a milestone for our country” and said the United States was now safer and more secure.
2,977
Men, women and children killed in the 9/11 attacks, according to the National September 11 Memorial Museum.
19
The number of years U.S. troops have been in Afghanistan, making it America’s longest military engagement. Thousands of U.S. and NATO troops remained on the ground after 2014 in smaller numbers, after passing security responsibility of the country to Afghan national forces. Foreign troops have since helped train and assist the Afghan security forces and institutions.
5,200
That’s the number of U.S. military troops still in Kabul as of Thursday, according to a Pentagon news briefing. The Biden administration said this past weekend that it was sending additional troops to Afghanistan to help partially evacuate the U.S. Embassy and ensure a safe withdrawal from the country.
4
The number of U.S. presidents who have presided over the Afghan war.
800,000
The number of American service members who have served in Afghanistan since October 2001, according to the Defense Department.
2,352
The number of U.S. military members who have died in Afghanistan as of this month, per the Defense Department. The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, SIGAR, puts this figure slightly higher, at 2,443 dead.
20,000
The number of American service members who have been wounded in the war effort, per the Defense Department. SIGAR puts this figure at 20,666.
2,261,000,000,000
The total ongoing cost to the United States of the Afghan war is more than $2 trillion, per Brown, which includes operations in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. It includes some reconstruction costs but not future obligations toward lifetime care for American veterans or future interest payments on money borrowed to fund the war. A 2021 report by SIGAR, citing the Defense Department, said the United States had spent some $837 billion on warfighting alone.
145,000,000,000
The amount the United States has provided to implement reconstruction programs in Afghanistan since 2002 is more than $145 billion, according to SIGAR. The funds are used for a range of projects including to build the Afghan National Security Forces, promote good governance and engage in counternarcotics efforts.
300,000
The number of Afghan military personnel trained by the United States to date. “We trained and equipped an Afghan military force of some 300,000 strong — incredibly well equipped — a force larger in size than the militaries of many of our NATO allies,” Biden said in an address to the nation Aug. 16, 2021.
62
That’s the percentage of Americans who said this week that the war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting, according to an opinion poll from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, conducted Aug. 12-16. When the war began in 2001, some 88 percent of Americans supported military action, according to a Gallup poll at the time.
10
The number of days it took for the Taliban to assume power of the government after massive gains across the country. The Taliban seized its first provincial capital — Zaranj in Nimruz province, on the border with Iran — on Aug. 6. Just days later, by Aug. 15, the Taliban were poised to take control of Kabul.
