Acting Department of Defense Comptroller Jay Hurst on Tuesday said the cost of the Iran war is now closer to a total of $29 billion.
“The joint staff team and the comptroller team are constantly looking at that estimate, and so now we think it’s closer to 29,” Hurst said as he testified in front of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee.
Almost two weeks ago, Hurst testified during a House Armed Services Committee hearing that the cost of the Iran war was $25 billion in total. The new, updated cost is due to “updated repair and replacement of equipment costs and also just general operational costs to keep people in theater,” Hurst said.
The increased price tag comes as the Trump administration for weeks has been insisting that the Iran war is suspended due to a ceasefire that has been reached between the two countries.
Earlier this month, the White House told Congress that as far as it was concerned, the war had been “terminated” by the ceasefire, which began on April 7 and has since been extended.
The administration also claimed that the ceasefire with Iran stopped the War Powers Resolution’s 60-day clock, requiring a military operation to receive congressional approval — or end — within two months of its start date.
That administration claim, experts have told TPM, is bogus due to the ongoing navy blockade, which is an act of war.
When asked on Monday if the ceasefire was still in effect, Trump said it is on “life support.”
“I would call it the weakest right now after reading that piece of garbage they sent us,” Trump said at the White House, referencing Iran’s demands to end the war. “I didn’t even finish reading it.”
Meanwhile, other estimates have indicated a much higher cost of the ongoing war.
The price tag is closer to $50 billion — almost double the estimate Pentagon publicly shared at the end of April — according to officials familiar with internal assessments who spoke with CBS News.
Other independent tallies have found even the $50 billion estimate to be more than $20 billion short.
I can’t believe Joe Biden got us into this stupid, impossible war. If only there were a businessman in the Oval Office and a gruff, no-nonsense warfighter straight out of central casting at the Pentagon, we could clear out all the bureaucrats and DEI officers who keep us from winning.
Somehow DonOLD has it in his head if soldiers or navy crews aren’t actually engaged in combat that they’re not on active duty??? It costs money to have ships with their crew blocking the Straights of Hormuz.
Big mystery to me is how the polls are as good as they are, not as bad as they are now for rump. Only 51% disapproval? Who TF are in this 49%???