Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee on Thursday, Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz said that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost more than $3 trillion. Stiglitz's testimony is based on research that was released as a book, The Three Trillion Dollar War, on Friday. Coauthored with Harvard University professor Linda Bilmes, the book estimates that when interest expenses on the deficit spending used to finance the war and other costs, like health care benefits for wounded veterans, are calculated, the wars' costs could range from $5 to $7 trillion. McClatchy: In an interview, Stiglitz said that too much of the public debate had been over the wars' operational costs while the real budget strains would show up only years from now. "The peak expenditures are way out," he said, noting that the peak expenditures for World War II vets came in 1993. The pair estimated that future medical, disability and Social Security costs for veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan range from a best-case $422 billion to what they call a more probable long-term expense of $717 billion.