The Pentagon disbursed roughly $385 billion to overseas contractors from 2001 to 2013.

Evidence

After an extensive examination of government spending data and contracts, my calculations show that just from late 2001 (when the war in Afghanistan began) to 2013, the Pentagon has disbursed around 385 billion in taxpayer-funded contracts to private companies for work outside the United States. Most of this money has gone to overseas bases. And while some of the contracts are for nonbase items such as weapons procurement, the thousands of contracts believed to be omitted from these tallies thanks to accounting errors make the entire 385 billion figure a reasonable reflection of the funds flowing to private contractors to support the country’s global base collection. Indeed, because of the Pentagon’s poor accounting practices and the secrecy surrounding military budgets, the true total may be significantly higher. — David Vine, Base Nation_ How U.S. Military Bases…, 675

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: what is the current comparable figure a decade later, and does it account for the post-2013 surge?
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s broader base-harms argument — the scale of privatization is a concrete mechanism by which bases drain public funds.

Related

• The Pentagon spent roughly $385 billion on overseas contractor work from 2001 to 2013 (similarity 0.96)
• Ten private contractors captured nearly a third of Pentagon base spending abroad (similarity 0.88)
• Overseas base contracts range from $43 to $301 million apiece. (similarity 0.87)
• The Pentagon’s top overseas contracting recipient is an unnamed catchall category worth $47 billion. (similarity 0.85)
• Contracting fraud in the Iraq and Afghan wars reached $31-60 billion (similarity 0.84)
• Base-generated contract dollars largely return to American and offshore corporations, not hosts. (similarity 0.84)
• A tiny group of contractors captures a third of overseas base spending (similarity 0.84)
• The Pentagon deliberately obscures who receives billions in overseas contracts (similarity 0.83)
• Ten corporations captured over $115 billion of overseas base contracts (similarity 0.83)
• Official Pentagon figures understate overseas base costs by over fivefold (similarity 0.83)
• Official Pentagon spending figures on overseas bases are underestimates. (similarity 0.83)
• Overseas base spending exceeds every federal agency’s budget except Defense. (similarity 0.83)
• Secret overseas base spending likely exceeds the official estimate. (similarity 0.82)
• Ten corporations captured over $115 billion of Pentagon base-contract spending. (similarity 0.82)
• Contracting fraud in US wars reached $31-60 billion, much tied to base spending. (similarity 0.82)