Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) and the Uncertain Cost of U.S. Wars (Anthony H. Cordesman, CSIS)

The United States has been involved in some form of warfare or conflict for most of the period since 1941, and has been continuously at war since September 11, 2001—nearly a decade and a half. The United States has never, however, come to grips with the reality of its involvement in such conflicts. Its official reporting on each conflict has been erratic at best, and has never really addressed the details of the cost of its wars, nor has it ever really addressed its strategies or how they were intended to be implemented. Furthermore, official U.S. reporting has not provided net assessments of the forces involved, nor has it provided a clear picture of the effectiveness of its military and civil efforts

http://csis.org/publication/overseas-contingency-operations-oco-and-uncertain-cost-us-wars