This week will see the Iran war reach 40 days of fighting, which is a far cry from the mere "four days" some US administration officials offered as a possible 'optimistic' timeline at the very opening of Trump's Operation Epic Fury.
According to the Iran War Cost Tracker portal, the US military operation has cost more than $42 billion thus far. The tracker has arrived at this figure largely based on a Pentagon briefing to Congress on March 10, which disclosed that Washington spent $11.3 billion in the first six days of the new war in the Middle East.
The same briefing indicated the Pentagon planned to spend at least an additional $1 billion per day for the remainder of the conflict.
The real cost could be much, much higher given that at this point dozens of ultra-expensive aircraft and radars have been knocked out by Iran's ongoing retaliation, and as the US has begun high risk incursions into the region and into Iranian territory itself.
Axios in a report days ago highlighted that "The U.S. is dedicating significant amounts of firepower to the Middle East as it wrestles with Iran. Some of it — billions of dollars' worth, in fact — will not be returning."
Describing the mounting costs in terms of blood and treasure, Axios wrote that "Hundreds of American troops have been injured and 13 killed" - and also: "Some exquisite weaponry, everything from stealth jets to radars, has been knocked out."
Axios continues, "The high end includes costs associated with radar replacement at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and some fixes to the Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier, which last month suffered an hours-long laundry fire." The laundry room fire narrative has been subject of immense speculation and skepticism, with the supercarrier undergoing lengthy emergency repairs at its current port of Split, Croatia.
Also confirmed damaged or destroyed are the following:
- One Lockheed Martin F-35A
- One Boeing E-3 Sentry
- One RTX AN/TPY-2 radar
- Three Boeing F-15E Strike Eagles
- Multiple Boeing KC-135 Stratotankers
- Multiple General Atomics MQ-9 Reapers
The lost military hardware, some of which may have yet to be disclosed, itself is a loss in the billions.
Despite the immense and growing expense on the American taxpayer, there's still not been a Congressional War Powers resolution passed. As yet, there's really not been any real or robust debate over the merits or justification of the war among the people's representatives in Congress.
Independent journalist (formerly of The Intercept) Lee Fang writes, "We learned from the Afghan papers & SIGAR reports that everything the Pentagon and cable media told us about that occupation was a lie. The U.S. installed hated pedophile drug lords to run that country while contractors ransacked billions. The Iran war is 10x more built on lies." And so the Iran situation could get a lot worse, and could be for potentially years to come.