IRAQ-AFGHAN WAR MORE EXPENSIVE THAN VIETNAM

Here is what America's wars have cost in 2008 dollars along with the percent of GDP, as provided by the Congressional Research Service

-American Revolution: $1.8 billion; GDP figure not available

-War of 1812: $1.2 billion; 2.2 percent

-Civil War, Union: $45.2 billion; 11.3 percent

Civil War, Confederacy: $15.2 billion; GDP figure not available

World War I: $253 billion; 13.6 percent

World War II: $4.1 trillion; 35.8 percent

Korean War: $320 billion; 4.2 percent

Vietnam War: $686 billion; 2.3 percent

-Gulf War: $96 billion; 0.3 percent

Iraq war: $648 billion; 1 percent

Afghanstian/Global war on terror: $171 billion; 0.3 percent

Post 9/11 domestic security: $33 billion; 0.1 percent

Post 9/11 operations: $859 billion; 1.2 percent

Incidentally, you may not have heard about this because despite taxpayers spending nearly $100 million a year to support the Congressional Reseach Service, these reports are not easily available. As Open CRS reports noted:

"The Congressional Research Service [is] a "think tank" that provides reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. Yet, these reports are not made available to the public in a way that they can be easily obtained. CRS reports do not become public until a member of Congress releases the report. A number of libraries and non-profit organizations have sought to collect as many of the released reports as possible. Open CRS brings together these collections to search. Unfortunately, there is no systematic way to obtain all CRS reports. Because of this, not all reports appear on the Open CRS web site."

OPEN CRS