A senior official at the U.S. Department of Defense (Pentagon) said on Wednesday that the U.S. war on Iran has cost approximately $25 billion so far, marking the first official estimate of the war’s expenses.
اضافة اعلان
With only six months remaining until the congressional midterm elections, opinion polls indicate that Democrats are gaining ground as they attempt to link the unpopular war in Iran to rising living costs. The Republican Party, to which President Donald Trump belongs, may face a difficult battle to maintain its majority in the House of Representatives.
Jules Hurst, acting comptroller for members of the House Armed Services Committee, said that most of the funds have been spent on munitions.
Hurst did not clarify whether the estimate includes the expected costs of rebuilding or repairing military base infrastructure in the Middle East that has been damaged by the conflict.
Representative Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, responded to Hurst by saying: “I’m glad you answered that question, because we’ve been asking it for a very long time, and no one has given us a number until now.”
The $25 billion cost is equivalent to the entire annual budget of NASA.
However, it remains unclear how the Pentagon arrived at the $25 billion figure, after a source told Reuters last month that the Trump administration had estimated the first six days of the war alone cost at least $11.3 billion.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that the cost is justified in light of the U.S. objective of ensuring that Iran does not acquire a nuclear weapon.
Hegseth defended the Iran war in sharply worded remarks before Congress, asserting that it is not a “quagmire” and criticizing Democratic lawmakers as “weak” for opposing a conflict that lacks broad public support.
The United States began launching airstrikes on Iran on February 28, and both sides are currently observing a fragile ceasefire. The Pentagon has deployed tens of thousands of additional troops to the Middle East, while maintaining three aircraft carriers in the region.
Thirteen U.S. soldiers have been killed in the war, and hundreds more have been injured.
Disruptions to oil and natural gas shipments since the outbreak of the war have driven up gasoline prices in the United States, as well as the cost of agricultural products such as fertilizers, along with a wide range of already expensive consumer goods.
Trump’s approval ratings have declined since the United States and Israel launched the war on Iran, which triggered a sharp rise in gasoline prices.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that only 34% of Americans support the U.S. war on Iran, down from 36% in mid-April and 38% in mid-March.
Reuters
