I would merely point out, since the operation started, global terrorism has fallen quite dramatically. Freedom isn’t free; never has been.
Domestic terrorism is up though. The American public wants nothing to do with being world police.
U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
101–110 of 193 posts
Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
If that is the case why do I see this comment every 5 minutes?
Yea, it is funny in /r/worldnews. Everytime Trump says something, there will be a thousand comments describing why everyone should ignore everything he says..
If Ashli Babbitt hadn't listened to Trump, maybe she'd still be alive and enjoying life with her family today.
Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
#103Does this number include the cost of stockpile replenishment?
Stockpile/equipment costs are the bulk of what we've spent so far. Operating a carrier group in a theatre is not that much more expensive than just maintaining an operational carrier group.
For many weapon systems, we burned through a decade of inventory in a month. Rapid replenishment will be expensive.
Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
#104[flagged]
Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why does improving things for future generations need to be held up until we can undo mistakes already done? The ladder got pulled up and some of us needed to scramble, but can't we lower the ladder back down for them anyway? We can do both. We can help people already saddled with debt, and also do things to prevent future generations from being saddled with debt in the first place. People who managed to climb out of…
We can help them by allowing students to default on their loans. It still costs us taxpayers but at least it keeps universities honest.
If you want to keep Unis honest, why not make them all public and financially regulated? Seems like the free market incentives should be removed from this essential service...
Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
#106So what were they requesting $200 Billion for?
Short answer? To ramp up production.
For any sufficiently large and complex system, you need to keep that assembly line alive to keep the system alive. Part of this is for just replacement parts and general maintenance. Take something like the F35. The engine will only last a certain number of flight hours. Then you need a new engine. That engine will need replacement blades and other parts. The frame and the stealth coating will need maintenance. And then there are all the weapons you fit to the plane and use.
A good example of how this matters is with rockets. Up until SLS, Saturn V was the most powerful rocket ever built and SLS only beats it by "cheating" with 2 solid rocket boosters. People would often ask "if we could build Saturn V 50-60 eyars ago, why can't we just do that again?" It's a fair question and the answer is we no longer have the expertise. All of the people who worked on that are long gone. Some of it was documented. Some wasn't. F5 engines were essentially bespoke. Materials science has changed. It's essentially impossible or just prohibitively impossible to reproduce now.
So back to the $200 billion. The US military has been hit by this kind of problem before where they've bought a weapons system and been unable to maintain it later. Now it essentially has to be documented and the US buys up and stores all the documentation as well as machining tools, etc if they ever have to revive it.
So for a lot of the munitions used in the war, the US has contracted them to a certain replacement rate. In the last year they've been used way in excess of that production rate. Ramping up production is expensive. New factories have to be built. New people need to be trained. And the only way a supplier would do that is if the military essentially pays for it AND guarantees purchasing. So you might end up paying 3x to double production because it doesn't necessarily scale. It's also more expensive to scale something up quickly.
Put another way, this is another $200 billion for Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to replenish overpriced weapon systems.
Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's so odd to me that people think the cost of oil going up is universally bad. It's good both morally for me and financially for many people.
Me too. I'm surprised those in the Green Movements generally, haven't been celebrating. Not a whisper. Makes one wonder.
It is nice to be rich. People in India and Asia are heavily reliant upon oil and gas coming through the strait. When prices shoot up by a multiple, guess what happens? The poorest people have to do without cooking gas. “Rationing” is a cute word to mean the poor take the hit on the chin.
There is enormous, real suffering hitting those who can least handle it.
Edit: I would add that those in the renewables industry are absolutely making lemonade off the situation. Energy analysts agree that short term profits will go up, but long term, everyone is going to be running to renewables. No country wants to have this existential fuel disruption risk hanging over their heads.
Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Probably comparable to North Korea getting a nuclear device and the missiles to deliver it.
This superficial analogy comes up a lot but these two states don't share anything in common aside from internal repression. They're diametrically opposed in their external behavior. Look at a small sampling of Iran's external actions in the region through the Quds force. The hundreds of thousands of Syrians killed by Hezbollah or the almost 300k dead in Yemen due to the Houthis. Iran's actions in 2019-2022 against CE…
North Korea routinely attacks South Korean and US assets in its area like the sinking of Cheonan. North Korea is strongly allied with its other neighbors China and Russia.
Iran is not organized around an expansionist death cult. They have not expanded or attempted to expand at all. They are involved in lots of neighboring conflicts because they are in a region with lots of conflicts. We are also involved in lots of conflicts there.
There is no possible closer comparison for a nuclear Iran than nuclear North Korea.
Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
#109So what were they requesting $200 Billion for?
> So what were they requesting $200 Billion for? That request was over a month ago and perhaps based on estimates using an operation tempo that was high. After the initial outburst, things may have slowed down. That said, a lot of missiles were used, which, under current production rates, will take years to replenish: some 'extra' money may be needed to pay for production ramp up to get replacements sooner.
> based on estimates using an operation tempo that was high
So they were expecting those high tempos to continue for months?
> That said, a lot of missiles were used, which, under current production rates, will take years to replenish: some 'extra' money may be needed to pay for production ramp up to get replacements sooner.
8X is a heck of an expedite fee.
Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
This superficial analogy comes up a lot but these two states don't share anything in common aside from internal repression. They're diametrically opposed in their external behavior. Look at a small sampling of Iran's external actions in the region through the Quds force. The hundreds of thousands of Syrians killed by Hezbollah or the almost 300k dead in Yemen due to the Houthis. Iran's actions in 2019-2022 against CE…
North Korea routinely attacks South Korean and US assets in its area like the sinking of Cheonan. North Korea is strongly allied with its other neighbors China and Russia. Iran is not organized around an expansionist death cult. They have not expanded or attempted to expand at all. They are involved in lots of neighboring conflicts because they are in a region with lots of conflicts. We are also involved in lots of c…
[flagged]