KABUL - The Iraq and Afghanistan wars will cost US taxpayers somewhere between $4 to $6 trillion, a new study from Harvard University has claimed.

In a report released Thursday, Harvard public policy Professor Linda J. Bilmes said the US has already spent nearly $2 trillion on the military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq, but this is just a fraction of the overall cost when the ongoing expenses of medical and disability care for veterans is taken into consideration.

The study was widely reported in US media, highlighting that the massive debt already incurred by the wars – $2 trillion is about 20 percent of America's debt measured from 2001 and 2012 – will only grow and will dominate federal budgets for decades to come.

"As a consequence of these wartime spending choices, the United States will face constraints in funding investments in personnel and diplomacy, research and development and new military initiatives," the report said.

Bilmes pointed out in the report that payments to Vietnam and the first Gulf war veterans are still rising, with the peak of disability payments for troops in the last century coming decades after the wars ended.

The Washington Post reported that Bilmes' estimate is higher than a similar study by Brown University's Eisenhower Research Project, which placed the wars' costs at about $4 trillion.

Both estimates, however, are much higher than what US officials projected when they planned to go to war in Iraq, the Post said. (Tolo News)