The U.S. Has Bombed The Islamic State More Than The Taliban (Chart)

© REUTERS/ U.S. Air Force/Senior Airman Matthew Bruch/Handout

Washington Post: Chart: How much more the U.S. has bombed the Islamic State than the Taliban

The price of waging America's wars has gone up dramatically this week.

First, we heard Republican presidential candidates in the debates Wednesday night saying they would send thousands of U.S. ground troops into Syria and Iraq to battle the Islamic State. Earlier that day, we heard Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, head of the U.S. Central Command, tell Congress that only “four or five” Syrian trainees — from a $500 million American plan to prepare as many as 5,400 fighters this year — have ended up “in the fight” inside Syria.

Now consider this statistic: There were more U.S.-coalition airstrikes in Syria and Iraq in the past year than during more than five years of the Afghan war. From January 2010 to Aug. 31, 2015, there have been 20,237 weapons released over Afghanistan, according to U.S. military data. From August 2014 to August 2015, there have been 22,478 weapons released over Syria and Iraq, mostly by U.S. aircraft.

WNU Editor: It looks like the Islamic State is a far bigger worry for the White House than the Taliban.