Trump's Iran war price tag just keeps rising

[marmar]

(Salon) The joint U.S.-Israel invasion of Iran is raising numerous questions about the scope and cost of the conflict, which has resulted in thousands of casualties across the region. When reporters asked Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on March 4 how long the war would last, he refused to give a straight answer.

“You can say four weeks, but it could be six, it could be eight, it could be three,” he said. “Ultimately, we set the pace and the tempo.”

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Still, threats of escalation are omnipresent in the Persian Gulf, including speculation of a land invasion by U.S. forces. On Friday, 2,500 more Marines were sent to the area, along with three more U.S. warships.

The war is averaging an $11-billion-a-week price tag, but last Thursday, Hegseth requested even more, to the tune of $200 billion. This is on top of the Pentagon’s annual budget of almost $1 trillion. He also revised the war’s timeline to an additional two months.

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Heidi Peltier, director of programs at Brown University’s Costs of War project, is highly skeptical of the $200 billion request.

“What we’ve seen come out of this administration is numbers that do not correspond to specific strategies or specific plans,” Peltier told Salon, noting a $50 billion emergency budget request just the week prior. ......................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/03/24/trumps-iran-war-price-tag-just-keeps-rising/