Cost of US war on Iran will top $1 trillion: Senior senator warns

Independent Senator Bernie Sanders has warned that the cost of the illegal war launched by the United States against Iran will surpass $1 trillion, a staggering sum that dramatically overshadows the Pentagon’s claim that Washington has spent just $25 billion so far on the unprovoked aggression.

The veteran senator issued the warning on Wednesday, sharply criticizing the administration of US President Donald Trump for pouring massive amounts of public money into a pointless war, instead of directing it toward essential domestic priorities such as housing and education.

“War in Iraq: $2.1 trillion. War in Afghanistan: $2.3 trillion. Projected cost of the war in Iran: $1 trillion. Somehow, there is always money for war, but never enough money for housing, education or the needs of working people. We must and will change our national priorities,” Sanders wrote in a post on his X account.

His remarks followed growing scrutiny of the Pentagon’s $25 billion estimate for the war on Iran, delivered by a senior Pentagon official to lawmakers earlier on Wednesday.

That figure is increasingly viewed as misleading, with emerging details pointing to much higher financial burdens and extensive US military losses inflicted by Iran.

According to three unnamed sources familiar with internal assessments, CNN reported that the $25 billion number excludes the widespread damage to US military bases across the region.

Once reconstruction costs and the replacement of destroyed assets are factored in, the real price tag likely falls between $40 billion and $50 billion.

Separately, senior senator Elizabeth Warren, a former law professor, also condemned the illegal war waged by a "clueless US president" against the Islamic Republic.

She urged a bipartisan effort to bring the war on Iran to an end.

“A billion dollars a day and thousands of lives lost from a war with no strategy, no exit plan, and no explanation. Republicans in Congress need to stand with us and stop this war,” she said on her X account.

Skepticism toward the Pentagon’s $25 billion estimate has already taken hold on Capitol Hill, with Democratic Representative Ro Khanna dismissing the figure as “totally off.”

Earlier disclosures indicated that the war cost approximately $11 billion in just its first six days, while the Pentagon has sought more than $200 billion in additional funding from the White House to continue the aggression, which rapidly escalated into a regional conflict.

In response to the US-Israeli all-out aggression launched on February 28, Iranian Armed Forces carried out more than 100 waves of retaliatory strikes under the codename Operation True Promise 4, firing hundreds of ballistic and hypersonic missiles as well as drones at sensitive and strategic American and Israeli targets across the region.

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