Pentagon wants $1.5 Trillion as Iran war costs explode

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Well, shortly before Trump made those comments,  his defense secretary, Pete Hexath, told the House Committee that the Pentagon is asking for  a warfighting budget. Hexath says the military needs $1.5 trillion for the next fiscal year.  That's a 44% increase. Every budgetary item we request serves to ensure that this department  remains laser focused on increasing lethality and survivability of our fighting force from  the front lines to the factory floors. This is admittedly a historic budget. It is a fiscally  responsible budget and it is a warfighting budget.

[00:00:38]Alazer's Hide Castro reports from Capitol Hill.  The war against Iran has cost the US at least $ 29 billion in the 74 days that it's been waged. And  that is in immunitions and equipment alone, not counting damage to military bases. The US Defense  Secretary was back on Capitol Hill asking Congress for more money, 1 and a.5 trillion, to fund the  military over the next year. He said that's what the US needs to maintain its posture as the most  effective military in the world. Republicans were mostly supportive. Democrats pushed back,  bolstered by new poll from Reuters that says twothirds of Americans are financially stressed by  high gas prices. And twothirds say that they are not sure about Trump's aims for this war. You're  spending families hard-earned tax dollars on a war that many strongly oppose. And you're forcing  people to pay more at the pump. And yet you're not even providing a real breakdown for the cost  of this war so far. We have no real details. You have indicated that. And yet now you want Congress  to send you 1.5 trillion dollars more. My concern, Mr. secretary is that you've achieved a series  of tactical successes but are on the verge of a strategic loss because we are now negotiating.  Just think it's so foolish. Here we are in a committee in the United States Senate 74 days  in and you're talking about strategic loss. We have the ability to defeat a 47year threat of a  pursuit of a nuclear weapon. I am not your enemy, sir. I am not your adversary. I share your  goal of preventing Iran from ever having a usable nuclear weapon. The US defense secretary  also said many military options remain including escalation as the president has said the current  ceasefire with Iran is on life support. Heidi Joe Castro Alazer Washington. Well, let's speak  to retired US General Mark Kimmit about this.

[00:02:33]He's also a former assistant secretary of state  for political and military affairs. Thank you so much General Kimit for joining us on Alazer.  So, uh, Pete Hexith asking for 1.3 1.5 trillion dollars for the next fiscal year. He said this  was a warfighting budget that it's intended to get the US industrial complex back on a war  footing. Is this wararmongering language from an administration that promised no more  foreign wars? How do you reconcile this? Well, I think we need to understand when he says warf  fighting, what he's saying. He, like many in this administration, had a view that the US military  had gone from being a warfighting organization to one that was more concerned about social goals,  non-military functions. So Pete Hgse for right or wrong has been hellbent to try to focus dollars  and resources only on those things that have a direct application to war fighting. Not because  we want to go out and war fight wars, but we need to be prepared for war. Is we feel in the military  the best way of guaranteeing peace is to be ready for war. And that seems to be what do they need  the 1.5 trillion for exactly? Well, first of all, uh the typical budget is normally broken down  into three major components. Your people, your operations, and your procurement. Now, people  aren't going to cost much more next year than they do this year. The real rise is down here in the  procurement. He is looking at two particular areas where he sees the US needing more quicker. Number  one is the F-47 sixth generation aircraft and the second one is the number of ships in the US. Now  all of those are on board but he's just trying to accelerate the procurement and the delivery of  those in order to get them ready to go sooner which means you're going to have that incremental  increase in the defense budget that we're talking about. All right. Now, the Pentagon has said  that the Iran war has cost $29 billion so far, but economists and lawmakers have suggested  that the costs, the the ultimate cost could reach up to a trillion dollar when you  factor in the economic ripple effects.

[00:04:54]Are we underestimating the cost of this war in  a way that risks misleading the American public?

[00:05:01]Well, first of all, the general accounting office  uh is the best in the world and there are very few uh figures that are not available out there. How  you sell those numbers? For example, 29 billion.

[00:05:16]29 billion is 5 days of the defense budget for  an an on an annual basis. Certainly, this war is costing more than 29 billion. Mhm. Um but do you  do you factor in the salaries that are already being paid as a cost? No, because they would have  been paid one way or the other. Right. So the 29 billion is the marginal cost. I do believe the  number is going to be much higher when we have to focus on re supplying the inventories that  have been shot up and that's where the numbers but so if if the number is much higher then what  gets sacrificed in the US? uh the defense budget is a separate line in the uh overall budget and  unfortunately we don't sacrifice but there will be trade-offs domestically though general and  unfortunately we have not the political courage to make those tradeoffs which is why we have a  $40 trillion debt. We say we're not going to trade military off for social programs. We buy both and  borrow money to do it. That's that's where the real challenge and the threat to national security  comes from in our budget is that burgeoning debt, right? In uh talking about threats, the reports  have also suggested that uh the US military may be running low on both offensive and uh defensive  weapons stockpiles. How serious is the situation right now from a military readiness standpoint?  How much has the US run out of for because of this war? Yeah, certainly we haven't run out  of anything. And if you're looking across the entire set of high precision weapons that have  been used uh probably mostly on the air defense shooting against the rockets and missiles and  drones that have been firing against us. Uh are we down to zero? Absolutely not. But you have  commanders in other regions like the commander that's in charge of making sure that he's ready  the day of the Chinese attack that's saying, "Wait a second. You're drawing weapons away from  me to fight that war in Iran. You've got the commander in Europe that has been supplying the  Ukrainians who can't supply as much." He's saying, "Well, so a lot of missions, limited number of  ammunition. We're not at a critical threat yet, but it's it's it's having an effect. It is. And  and President Trump seems to want to ha uh have this war end. He's on his way now to Beijing to  meet the Chinese. He says he'll talk to Xi Jinping about the war, but that he doesn't need China's  help in ending the conflict. What did you make of that? I think he's correct. Uh, look, China has  more to lose in this war than any other country.

[00:08:07]Between the loss of oil coming from Venezuela  and the loss of oil coming from this region, China is heading towards recession uh if not  depression. And so, China has probably more need to help President Trump than President  I President Trump can give more help to the Chinese than the Chinese can to President Trump.  The bottom line, you are right. Everybody wants to see an end to this war and the end of the  war cannot include a nuclear armed Iran. Thank you so much, General Kim, for joining us  on Alazer. Good to have your perspective