The rising cost of the Afghan and Iraq wars is always a serious concern, though it really only gets discussed when a major new spending bill is passed or a new milestone is hit.

Tonight it is the later, as Costofwar.com, the maker of a popular Javascript ticker that estimates the current costs of the war, has seen its estimate pass the $1 trillion mark earlier today.

Costofwar’s estimate is based on the amount of money allocated to the war in the current and previous fiscal years, but other estimates suggest that the true cost runs into the several trillion dollar range.

The milestone is largely symbolic, however it is useful, to quote one activity, to “make sure voters and constituents and people in general understand that when they’re talking about adding billions, that’s on top of $1 trillion that we’ve spent on these two wars.”

With America stumbling into the realm of record budget deficits on the back of record military expenditures and a floundering global economy, the sacred cow that is war spending is expected to become an issue going forward. This is particularly true as after eight and a half years, there is still no end in sight to the wars.