GAO: $21 billion spent fighting ISIS

And while it appears that ISIS is cornered and certainly on the run, the Governmental Accountability Office found that government lacks a strategy to fight the extremism that ISIS is a part of and that most threatens the U.S. homeland.

“We found the federal government does not have a cohesive strategy or process for assessing the countering violent extremism effort. We recommended that Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice develop a cohesive strategy with measurable outcomes and establish a process to assess the overall progress of efforts to counter violent extremism,” said GAO.

The 47-page report opens with the cost analysis from figures provided by the Pentagon and State Department:

Pentagon $10.9 billion.

The Department of Defense (DOD) reported that it has allocated $10.9 billion for counter-ISIS operations from August 2014—when these operations began—through 2016.

State aid to allies in the fight $2.4 billion.

The Department of State (State) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) report having allocated more than $2.4 billion in funding for Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria to counter ISIS, respond to and mitigate the Syrian crisis, bolster regional security, and support development programs.

Humanitarian aid $7.8 billion.

State and USAID also report that, separate from U.S. political efforts to counter ISIS, the two agencies have provided more than $1.3 billion in humanitarian assistance to Iraqis in the region since fiscal year 2014 and more than $6.5 billion in humanitarian assistance to Syrians and others in the region affected by the Syrian crisis.

The new report is a public version of an earlier classified review and includes several sections addressing the war on ISIS and recommendations to improve it.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]