How Do You Measure The Costs Of War?

Footnote recently spoke with the Costs of War project director Catherine Lutz of Brown University (h/t Kindred Winecoff). The Costs of War is "a multidisciplinary initiative to analyze the human, economic, social and political costs and benefits of the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan." Here's what she said about the costs of the wars in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.

The total number of military and civilian casualties, American and foreign, is 280,845. A lot of Americans know that over 6,000 of our young men and women have died in uniform, but very few people know that the scale of human death and wounding has been much vaster. Approximately 24,000 members of the Iraqi, Afghan, and Pakistani security forces have been killed. Over 176,000 civilians have died and 7.4 million people have been displaced indefinitely and are living in grossly inadequate conditions.

The total financial cost of the war to date for American taxpayers is between $3.2 and $4 trillion. In addition to Pentagon appropriations explicitly for the wars, these figures include additions to the Pentagon base budget, care for veterans, homeland security, war-related foreign aid, and interest payments. Another half trillion in military spending is projected from now until 2020. Our estimates include some of the biggest costs, which are yet to come: the U.S. can expect to spend between $600 billion and $1 trillion caring for veterans of these wars over the next four decades.

Pretty grim and it doesn't look like they take into consideration operations in Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere.

Does anyone know of similar comprehensive studies for the conflicts in Central America? Usually we focus on the numbers killed and disappeared, human rights violations committed, and the economic costs (at least when it comes to US involvement in El Salvador).