3/4/2026 at 7:13:16 PM
Some problems:- The Aid package is not immediately spent all at once. It authorizes up to $26 billion, but the CBO estimates it may take all the way into 2033 to claim the money.
- To that end, a lot of these costs are double counted. It's including the bill that authorizes these expenses, and then those expenses all in the same calculation.
More realistically, the $6.5M/day in theater operations for a Carrier Strike Group is probably pretty accurate (In reality, they already cost the US about $30M/day just operate normally). The flyaway costs for the Tomahawk missiles are going to be about $1M each (a lot of price estimates include the R&D costs divided per units).
In reality, the cost of a 60 day war with Iran using current methods at our current loss rates will get you closer to about $8-12B total cost. Which is still a lot more more incrementally accurate.
by legitster
3/4/2026 at 7:29:25 PM
Thank you for the feedback, I'll take it into account. Much appreciated!by koverda
3/5/2026 at 7:34:58 AM
It would be interesting, but admittedly difficult, to have a comparative scale of what could have been achieved if the money had been used to hire more teachers, set up universal healthcare, reduce overcrowding in prisons, provide shelters and food for the homeless, subsidise doctors to work in places where no-one can afford medical care... In other words "at this point you could have provided shelter for every homeless person; at this point you could have halved the crowding in prisons; at this point ...".by pseudohadamard
3/5/2026 at 5:17:07 PM
You mean instead of the war?These are really two different costs, hardly comparable. And both useful (if it ends up with a true liberation of the Iranians)
by BrandoElFollito