$37.5bn Iran War Bill: Senator Warns Forever War
The US Secretary of Defense confirmed the Iran campaign has cost $37.
Pete Hegseth has put a number on it. The US Secretary of Defense confirmed the Iran campaign has cost $37.5 billion so far, as the Trump administration moved to secure additional congressional funding to sustain operations now entering their eleventh consecutive night of strikes, according to The Guardian.
The figure landed in Washington like a stone through glass. At least one senator — unnamed in initial reports but described as a senior member of the Armed Services Committee — warned publicly that the United States is walking into "another forever war," invoking the language of Afghanistan and Iraq with a precision that the administration will find difficult to dismiss.
Hegseth's disclosure was not voluntary. It came under pressure from lawmakers demanding accountability as diplomatic efforts in Pakistan to salvage an interim ceasefire deal continue to be overshadowed by the military campaign itself. The strikes, per Guardian reporting, have targeted sites Tehran insists hold no active nuclear programme — a claim that has yet to be independently verified and that the Pentagon has declined to directly address.
At $37.5 billion across eleven nights, the burn rate is extraordinary. For context, the entire annual GDP of Malta sits below $25 billion. The money is moving faster than the strategy.
Congress has funded two forever wars before. It knows exactly what the request on the table means — and it is voting anyway.
