The war also comes at a significant financial cost to the American taxpayer. In a March 2 press conference, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine provided a glimpse into the nature of operations thus far in Operation Epic Fury. Caine described the deployment of more than 100 aircraft, the use of Tomahawk missiles, and attacks on more than 1,000 targets in just the first day of operations. Utilizing Brown University’s “Costs of War” project cost estimates of previous operations in the region—including Operation Midnight Hammer against Iran last June and engaging the Houthis in Yemen—it is likely that the operations Caine described alone would cost more than $4 billion.
$5B+
Estimated initial costs of Operation Epic Fury as of March 2, just days into the campaign
But these are not the only costs. Elaine McCusker, a former Pentagon official in the first Trump administration, estimated the costs of repositioning forces in the Middle East to be around $630 million even prior to the start of hostilities. On March 2, Kuwaiti forces accidentally shot down three F-15 fighter jets in a friendly-fire incident. As these aircraft can cost as much as $117 million, this translates to an estimated total loss of $351 million. Added to the operations Caine described, a conservative estimate for the initial costs of Operation Epic Fury is more than $5 billion as of March 2—and the campaign is just getting started.
While different phases of air operations may bring somewhat lower costs, the operating costs for two carrier strike groups alone are about $18 million per day, and that does not include the costs of daily sorties, munitions, or the deployment of defensive weapons systems. Air operations from the several U.S. Air Force bases in the region also have high costs per day. At the current scale of operations, a three-week war could easily exceed tens of billions of dollars in expenses.
At the current scale of operations, a three-week war could easily exceed tens of billions of dollars in expenses.
These costs come at a time when American citizens are acutely feeling the pressures of increased prices at home, including housing, energy, and health care costs. They also coincide with efforts by the Trump administration to encourage the Republican-led Congress to enact cruel and dangerous austerity measures, slashing health care and food assistance spending while seeking continuous—and often unjustifiable—increases in the Pentagon budget. Providing for the common defense is a critical role of any government; and Americans should expect Congress to appropriate necessary funds to ensure it, as well as expect the Department of Defense to use those funds wisely and in the interest of national security. But waging a senseless and costly war raises legitimate questions about this government’s priorities. Priced at around $2.2 million, a single Tomahawk missile could cover 775 children on Medicaid for a year or provide more than 3,600 children with meals in the National School Lunch Program. At more than $5 billion and counting, the costs of Operation Epic Fury—in only its first few days of operations—could cover Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for more than 2 million Americans for a year. If this war continues at the same pace, Americans could see their government burn through tens of billions of dollars, funds that would amount to the cost of Medicaid for millions in the United States.
It’s true that U.S. and Israeli strikes have killed brutal leaders—including Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, and other Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials—who have the blood of thousands of Iranians, Americans, Israelis, Lebanese, Syrians, and others on their hands. But far from auguring a brighter future, this reckless, unlawful war is unlikely to lead to democracy for Iranians or greater stability for the region. Already, the U.S. and Israeli strikes and Iran’s response have upended regional stability, with retaliatory strikes across the region targeting critical military, energy, and tourism infrastructure. This instability and the Trump administration’s failure to articulate any clear endgame should leave Americans asking why their hard-earned taxpayer dollars are being spent on a reckless war that has already claimed the lives of American soldiers and hundreds of civilians across the region.
At more than $5 billion and counting, the costs of Operation Epic Fury—in only a few days of operations—could cover SNAP benefits for more than 2 million Americans.
This week, members of Congress will be casting votes on war powers resolutions of disapproval in both the House and Senate. Though both are likely to fail in the Republican-led Congress, lawmakers should make clear to the president and his administration that neither the U.S. Congress nor the American people support this war of choice. This is both a rule-of-law imperative, as the Constitution requires that only Congress can decide to initiate a war, and a moral one. Deploying the military—unleashing its awesome power on another nation and its people, putting our service members at risk, and imposing tens of billions of dollars in costs on the American taxpayer—is among the most solemn responsibilities of the commander in chief. Donald Trump has yet again proven himself unfit to exercise the powers that the presidency requires.
The author would like to thank Frank Kendall, Bobby Kogan, Andrew Miller, Steve Kosiak, and Damian Murphy for their input into this article. She also thanks Amina Khalique and Kyle Ross for their fact-checking support.