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U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

reuters.com

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Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

#151

Post by Arodex »

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #86
qsera wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is interesting. Is the job of a leader (or the administration) to foresee threats before anyone else can see it coming? Is their job to make sure that it does not manifest? It is interesting that when they does it, the majority is against it, precisely because no one else could see it and can agree with the action of the administration? So it seems that if someone is a very good leader, they will be ridiculed by t…

Exactly. - Many cannot accept its dangerous world. - Many don't understand that stewardship of nuclear weapons alone is a major undertaking that Iran cannot be trusted to manage. US & USSR alone has several near-miss detonations/launches. - Many will refuse to accept solely because 'orange man bad'. - Some are paid to criticize on influential online forums and HN makes no effort to moderate or police such activity.

I guess you will be first in line for the invasion of North Korea, then?

Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

#152

Post by someotherperson »

lysace wrote: post #126
someotherperson wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Foreigners like me care more about global stability" yes so continue to rain bombs on the middle east, accept their poorest as refugees, and continue to support Israeli expansion. All of this leads to global stability. It's definitely not the reason behind global instability. European takes are usually the funniest. It's literal racism (as in, one race is better than the other) but it's packaged in such a ridiculous…

Lots of odd assumptions there. As an example: I was out on the streets protesting the 2003 GWB Iraq invasion war. It was mostly obvious before the invasion that the cause was bogus. It was later proven to be bogus. And you seem to have this way of boiling literally everything down to some sort of unspecified racism .

> Lots of odd assumptions there.

No assumptions, it's all fact.

> I was out on the streets protesting the 2003 GWB Iraq invasion war

You mean the war that all the European countries participated in? How about Libya? Syria? or the various conflicts in Israel? Surely you also opposed what's happening in Yemen right?

> And you seem to have this way of boiling literally everything down to some sort of unspecified racism

Suggesting 'we are trustworthy to have nuclear capabilities, but those other people are not' is racist, yeah. Considering the most crackpot nations responsible for most of the global instability and suffering over the last few centuries are also the ones who seem to think they can decide who can and can't utilize energy sources. Let me know when you show similar concern about Israel.

Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

#153

Post by mrits »

Detrytus wrote: post #118
mrits wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing keeps the people well feed like the inability to grow crops.

Funny that you say that, because LNG exports from Persian gulf being blocked will result in fertilizer shortages and potentially a famine.

More short term thinking

Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

#154

Post by tencentshill »

howmayiannoyyou wrote: post #82

Perspective: - $9b per month increase in US oil export revenue as a result offsets probably 40% of the cost. - Several trillion (with a 'T") of realized and yet to be realized FDI commitments from gulf states more than offsets cost by about 3x. - A nuclear Iran carries economic costs I won't detail here to prevent a wall of text. In sum, forces other countries to go nuclear and take other actions to manage risk, and…

>$25B in taxpayer money spent

At least $160 from every taxpayer in the US

>$9b per month increase in US oil export revenue

Goes directly to oil companies, taxed minimally if at all.

Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

#156

Post by _doctor_love »

Ritewut wrote: post #135
_doctor_love wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I muse on this as well but recently I'm struck that the entire conversation is something of a distraction. Everyone is focused on the current administration, what they're doing right or wrong, contrasting it with Biden, etc. My question is - how did we even reach this point? I understand people didn't like Hillary Clinton and the way they dealt with Biden's age was abysmal when he was in office. But I have literally…

I won't say I never see it because I do but the reason you rarely see it is Bernie Sanders. The DNC played dirty when it came to Sanders in 2016 and it tainted Clinton's entire campaign and it really continues to taint the DNC to this day. A lot of Obama to Trump voters would've voted Sanders and progressives never forgot or forgave how the DNC treated Sanders.

Right, I mean...sure. That all makes sense.

But now look at all the changes happening since the composition of SCOTUS changed. It was pretty much guaranteed that would happen with a Trump win. And yet people still went for it.

That just doesn't compute for this guy.

Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

#157

Post by _DeadFred_ »

nullocator wrote: post #142
_DeadFred_ wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Those stock piles are for war with China/Russia/Iran. If we end up in a situation where that has shifted to China/Russia, they will have been put to their intended/purchased for use.

This is massively and factually incorrect. When congress passed _defense_ budgets for the last 30+ years none of the munitions intended for the defense of the united states were earmarked for "war with China/Russia/Iran". Some were sold/"gifted" to Ukraine/Israel/etc but there is no language in any bill about stockpiling arms for war against one of those named countries. War which congress must declare.

So as an American I have been sold our need to build up is because Iran/China/Russia. This is factually correct that this is what I have been told.

This is going to be wild, but public perception/justification != congressional earmarks language.

Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

#158

Post by erentz »

jauntywundrkind wrote: post #79
NoLinkToMe wrote: post #32

For context Doge saved 2-3 billion by independent estimates. And cut some of the most important international aid around the world.

Other independent estimates say DOGE has cost America $135b. https://fortune.com/article/doge-mass-federal-workforce-cuts... And spread death and disaster across the world, making chainsaw man musk the 21st century's bloodiest killer. https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-shutdown-has-led-to-hund... But yes our politicians seem entirely unwilling to do anything about colossal expenditures on this "expedition", while al…

> our politicians seem entirely unwilling to do anything about colossal expenditures on this "expedition"

Not all politicians. Most democrats have tried to do something about it with the help of just one republican. They aren't the same.

Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

#159

Post by _DeadFred_ »

bigyabai wrote: post #144
_DeadFred_ wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yesterday the Iranian embassy in the UK called for attacks in the UK. Today there were stabbings. Iran likes to demonstrate that they can reach out a touch someone.

Case in point. Clearly neither of those are nuclear-level threats, the IRGC and Mossad have both fomented public violence for decades at this point. Their Tom & Jerry reenactment is not casus belli for the US or Europe. You'll note that no Article 4 has been invoked over Iran because it's not a legitimate security concern for any of NATO's members.

They are a demonstarted threat that Iran is willing/happy to call for terrorism around the world, and that their threat is real and will be carried out.

That the Islamic Republic of Iran's words such as 'conduct terror attacks in the UK right now' and 'death to America' have the actual threat of death behind them and aren't just 'rhetoric' as HN claims.

One that HN won't care about, but that Iran targets and kills jews, not just Israeli jews, but all jews, anywhere in the world, as their political agenda.

Re: U.S. war in Iran has cost $25B so far, says Pentagon official

#160

Post by erentz »

delecti wrote: post #34
mc32 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d be okay with them forgiving student loans so long as they also pay me back for what I paid back. I think the best course is to allow students to default on their loans. With backed loans Unis know they’ll get their money one way or the other and keep ballooning their admin costs.

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…

Democrats shouldn’t have wasted effort on trying to reduce student loans simply because the constituency (students) didn’t even give them recognition for it. They simply blamed Biden when SCOTUS blocked it.

But more generally we shouldn’t do one off things like this when we still haven’t fixed the cause of the problem. A better policy would be to start by making community college or first two years of college free or something like that.

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