(Creative Commons)

Over nine years, the U.S. has spent $336 billion fighting the war in Afghanistan, according to a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.

Largely because of the 30,000-troop increase that President Obama ordered in December last year, the annual cost of the war jumped $45.4 billion to $104.9 billion in 2010, a 76 percent leap from 2009.

The cost of Afghanistan accounted for about 60 percent of the $171 billion Congress approved to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined this past year.

This is a reverse of the previous year, in which Iraq took up about two thirds of the total defense budget.

Because troop levels in Iraq were cut nearly in half between 2009 and 2010, however, the cost of that war has fallen significantly. Average monthly spending on Iraq went down about 25 percent during that time.

So far, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have cost a combined total of $1.1 trillion.

This makes the combined war effort since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks easily the U.S.’s most expensive military venture since it dropped a bewildering $4 trillion – adjusted for inflation – fighting World War II.

Hundreds of billions – and even trillions – of dollars don’t go as far as they used to, though.

U.S. military activity in Afghanistan is higher than ever, but in 2010 the costs of fighting and nation-building there accounted for just 0.7 percent of the national Gross Domestic Product.

Iraq and Afghanistan combined accounted for just over 1 percent of the GDP.

In contrast, the Vietnam war took up 2.3 percent of the GDP when the conflict reached its peak in 1968.

A July New York Times article suggested that this reflects the notion that this country, in general, is far less heavily invested in the current wars than it was in Vietnam and World War II.

Obama’s goal is to begin reducing U.S. troops in Afghanistan starting July 2011, but the CRS estimates that the war will continue to become more expensive next year.

If Congress’s next request for defense spending goes through unchanged, the war in Afghanistan will eat up an additional $119 billion.

Reach reporter Ryan Faughnder here.

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