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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

#91

Post by tokai »

dmurray wrote: post #39
Ritewut wrote: post #22

I remember before the election I read a few people on HN say Trump is the most anti-war president they have ever seen and that all the talk about him letting Israel flatten Palestine was fearmongering. Wonder how they feel now.

I felt more or less like this, though I don't know if I posted it on HN. Lots of things I didn't like about Trump, but I did favour the less interventionist foreign policy he promised and initially delivered. Now I feel I was wrong and Trump is just averagely warmongering, as US presidents go.

Honest question; why did you believe that about Trump? He was, and is, a serial lier and famously inconsistent. In his first term he moved on the same conflicts he has started now, but was held back circumstances and a cabinet that wasn't 100% yes men. I never understood how anyone could see Trump as the anti-war candidate during the election.

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

#92

Post by lysace »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #80
lysace wrote: post #71

As a European center/moderate kind of person I agree with the US POTUS about this one thing: Iran can not be allowed to build nuclear weapons. I personally don’t buy the line of thought that Iran has no such ambitions; YMMV. Whether this war is effective at stopping that is another question.

They had an agreement that was working which Trump tore up and then went to war on Israel’s behalf. So it was largely a solved problem until Trump created the problem.

There are two perspectives here:

Americans like you (I rudely assume) care more about US domestic policies than I do.

Foreigners like me care more about global stability compared to US domestic policies.

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

#93

Post by swed420 »

eirikbakke wrote: post #55
palmotea wrote: post #2

Wow, that's pretty cheap compared to all the AI datacenters.

The data centers are being paid for by customers, who are receiving greater value from the products than they pay for them.

LMAO would love to see that math

(which of course would need to account for the cost to the end user of constant rug-pulling, enshitification, github struggling to maintain one 9 of availability, privacy invasion, rampant mental health issues and political division from profit-based social media, etc)

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

#94

Post by ck2 »

all their numbers are a lie

they've spent more than $25 BILLION on just weapons which have to be replaced so it's already twice that number

and for more examples we know now the true cost of militarization since 9/11 was $21 TRILLION

it's at least half the national debt if not more

https://ips-dc.org/report-state-of-insecurity-cost-militariz...

Remember, beyond the cost of war, every day the cost of gas is +$1 that's another BILLION dollars being siphoned out of the US economy, EVERY DAY

the strait is not opening this year, maybe not even before 2029 at this rate

that's TRILLIONS

time for a windfall profits tax on the US oil industry

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

#95

Post by billfor »

Ritewut wrote: post #69
billfor wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he ran on ending "forever wars", not whether or not Israel could flatten Palestine. He would probably also argue that Iran is a 47 year forever war that he is finally ending.

I guess one of the Koreas should watch out since Trump might want to end that "forever war" as well. Flip a coin to decide which one.

He made efforts to end that already by being the first sitting president to meet with them during his first term, so I guess we'll see but Cuba is apparently next in line...

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

#97

Post by bigyabai »

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.

> Many cannot accept its dangerous world.

The ballistic missiles are the danger, and Iran already has those. There is no missile or reentry vehicle in Iran's possession that can credibly threaten the United States with a nuclear weapon.

> US & USSR alone has several near-miss detonations/launches.

According to Seymour Hersh, Israel was close to using their nuclear weapon as well. Why not focus on their disarmament first to deter Iranian retaliation?

> Some are paid to criticize on influential online forums and HN makes no effort to moderate or police such activity.

Please reread HN's guidelines if you don't want to be permabanned: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

   Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like.

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

#98

Post by drnick1 »

nerdsniper wrote: post #3
palmotea wrote: post #2

Wow, that's pretty cheap compared to all the AI datacenters.

Note that it doesn't count the cost of second- or third- order effects (like the cost from the price of oil going up by 50%). Since February 28, crude oil prices increases cost $42 billion in the United States alone.

Oil money flows back into the U.S. economy as a net exporter.

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

#99

Post by alphawhisky »

vixen99 wrote: post #89
crab_galaxy wrote: post #58

It's so funny to me when the dollars stop being abstract for a moment, and I see that the US has regions that beg for quite literally .2% of this amount to fund things like public transit, lead remediation in elementary schools, or homelessness programs. Americans will never see a dime of benefit from this war.

Those with shares in certain companies have got very rich out of it.

Call me crazy, but maybe allowing privatization of public transportation, security, healthcare, etc is where this all started. The incentives need to stop.

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

#100

Post by alphawhisky »

newsclues wrote: post #68
epistasis wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being a net exporter is completely irrelevant when prices are set globally. Such a statement is like shining a laser pointer to distract a cat, fun, but meaningless.

You do realize some net exporters subsidize their domestic supply to keep the people happy?

That means they're passing the cost onto the whole world. The US is making this war everyone else's problem and it's ruining foreign affairs and good standing with the world.
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