Economic Costs of Reserve Forces Utilization: An Analysis of Their Employment in Fighting the Global War on Terrorism

摘要

This project offers a model useful for estimating the social cost of U.S. Reserve Forces and National Guard employment alternatives in support of the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). We consider two specific alternatives in this report: (1) the operational force (status quo) and (2) increasing Active Duty Force end strength and keeping Reserve Forces as a 'strategic' reserve. We assume both alternatives are equal in effectiveness. Each alternative provides certain benefits and costs to American society. We also accept a budgetary cost estimate of $533 billion from the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. We then focus on the social costs of these alternatives. We conclude that the social cost of Alternative 1 exceeded Alternative 2 by nearly $50 billion from 2001 to 2006.