What's The Tab On The War So Far?

The dollar figures are sketchy as the administration has left out the replacement cost of lost aircraft and the rebuilding of damaged bases; but here's a start.  Casualties on our side; 18 dead, 482 wounded and counting.  Deaths among the Gulf States, including Iran, and merchant seamen are estimated to number into the thousands.

 

Excluding aircraft and base losses the war in Iran has officially cost the United States $37.5 billion so far, according to recent testimony by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. However, intelligence officials and independent analysts  estimate the total cost exceeds $100 billion.  

 

Supporting the higher estimate consider that earlier this week Defense Secretary Hegseth and General Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared before the Senate appropriation Committee seeking $70 billion more to cover costs of the conflict and replenish depleted weapons stocks.

Sounds like the tip of an iceberg.  

 

Nevertheless, insofar as nobody can put the toothpaste back in the tube and hardly anybody wants to cut the troops off at the knees during wartime I think we're stuck with paying for a conflict of choice begun by one guy.  An impulsive choice, likely made against the advice of the Vice President, Secretary of State and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; but that's a discussion for another day.  

 

What do we have to show for our expenditure of lives and treasure?

 

The Strait of Hormuz remains closed.  The Red Sea's Bab el-Mandeb (Gateway of Tears) is now threatened by the Houthis.  U.S. bases throughout the Gulf States remain vulnerable to attack.  And oil is trading close to $100 a barrel.  Mr. Trump has set in motion a cascade of destabilizing events that have dangerous consequences for global stability, security and the world's economy.   

 

By all outward appearances this has all the elements of an open-ended cluster.  Some have suggested this could develop into another costly and grinding conflict that might persist into the next administration.  Iran is near certain to obtain a nuke.  This is Mr. Trump's Jimmy Carter moment - on steroids.  Time will tell how this plays-out.

 

And not a single MAGA supporter I'm acquainted-with will admit that their guy might have fallen under the thrall of Bibi Netanyahu.

Or just, plain and simply, miscalculated….