The Staggering Cost Of The Iran War

Added: 2026-05-08

[00:00:01]The spirit of this revolution is not going away.

[00:00:04]>> This is the Ron Paul Liberty Report with Ron Paul, Daniel McAdams, and Chris Rosini. We are all ambassadors of the Ron Paul Doctrine, and it's so simple.

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[00:00:34]Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in to the Liberty Report. With us today we have Daniel McAdams, our co-host.

[00:00:42]Daniel, good to see you this morning.

[00:00:43]>> Good morning Dr. Paul. How are you this morning?

[00:00:45]>> Doing well. Doing well.

[00:00:47]>> But we're going to talk about budgeting wars and uh it's a very lucrative. It's a very big economic system. A lot of people make a lot of money >> and a lot of people go poor because of it because they steal the money from poor people to begin with and then they fight wars that we don't need and we had hasn't been once or twice. It's it's incestuous or what we do on how we need activity the whole time. And uh I don't want to go how many we've had just in my lifetime, but uh just since I've been very much engaged, it's uh we've had quite a few like the the Iraq war, Afghanistan war, uh Ukraine war, and Iran war. They they have to have something keeping going, but they're always making us safe and they're always making everybody happy and a lot of people make a lot of profit, but the payment is due. It's being paid and most of us followed on the innocent people who who probably could have been more active in trying to prevent this, but they're uh not the participants who are making money off the war. And that's the general middle class. And uh I tell you what, this this thing is get getting bad because you know if they report they do they do report and it helps to wake people up. But you know what they fib fib people one article say don't play around with words they steal it. They steal the money and they lie about it too. And here it is. I think we talked about it when the first report came out from this group. uh it said that u we were spending uh 50 $50 billion on on the war and and this article uh said no it's uh and we're talking about first 60 days uh it's really it's really $72 billion and uh quite frankly the people who know a lot about this said it's going to be more and what what if it goes another 60 days and uh can they walk away from Now, uh I I think the administration's trapped because that was Nixon. Nixon said, "Oh, no. It was LBJ that said, "I can't be the first American president that lost the war." So, he was just thinking he was just fighting the war just for his image. And uh and so there's a a lot of that. See, they're not they're not going to walk away.

[00:03:20]They're being the wararm mongers and say, "Oh, we wasted our time. We wasted your money. We're not going to do it.

[00:03:26]But these numbers are startling and uh and and they're destined to go much higher. I don't know how the financial system is held together with so much debt and so much monetization of this debt and so many people suffering.

[00:03:43]Something is going to have to give. And I think we see the big crack already.

[00:03:48]>> Yeah, I think we're getting there. Now, this is some uh uh Stefan Semler at popular information uh Substack went through and crunched the numbers. As we know, Secretary of of Defense Hegathth was before Congress a few days ago and he said the cost of this war so far is $25 billion.

[00:04:08]We all knew it was a lowball when he said it, but um it's actually a real big lowball. if we can put that first one up. The real cost of the Iran war 72 billion for the first 60 days. Now he has a methodology here for making this uh for making this assessment. Uh now if you go to the next one, this is where he said 25 billion for for 60 days. CBS reported 50 billion, double the amount.

[00:04:36]However, uh Similar holds that this is actually still even too low. Um, if you go to the next one, he says, uh, Popular Information, that's his Substack, conducted a cost estimate of the Iran war based on official statements, military procurement in operations data, and reported on deployments and armament use. Through 60 days, the US spent an estimated $71.8 billion on the Iran war or $1.2 billion a day. Now, if you go to that next one, you'll see a chart and this is the estimation.

[00:05:10]uh uh operation mobilization administration of combat 15.8 billion weapons missiles interceptors bombs and other 41.2 billion losses damaged or destroyed military assets 11.9 billion subsidies paying for Israel's bombs and interceptors $2.9 billion $71.8 billion is their estimate now of this first 60 days of war and as you rightly point out Dr. Paul that will fall disproportionately uh in the pocketbooks of the poor and middle class in the US.

[00:05:44]>> Yeah, that's that's where the real tragedy is. But you know when the Roman Empire was disintegrating uh as it was starting, they they had a tradition uh that um the soldiers uh when they went to war and they would conquer a new land, they got a they got a part of that. They always gained from it. there was always a large s it was passed out to the military which gave gave them incentive to keep the people coming to fight these wars but you know today it's not a whole lot different there's people we we don't uh we don't literally hand it something to them but in a way we we do we hand it you know to the weapons industry just think of the profits that that they make and then also these wars are fought and and how often is oil involved. I think it's astounding that there was plenty of oil, you know, just a year ago. Uh the oil's there, but they were able to take a re a reasonably well organized system under all these conditions before this war started. I mean, nobody was complaining. It was gasoline was up, but hadn't nothing like what we get now. And it's all a result.

[00:06:59]And so who people with oil people, you know, I hear American people are going down now to Venezuela and getting part of the deal. And uh that that to me uh keeps it going and there's more incentives and it sort of takes care of the of the spending on the short run, but on the long run, this leads to the turmoil that the people finally get sick and tired of it. And you've already said it, you know, the poor people get stuck with the bill.

[00:07:28]>> Yeah. and hidden through inflation too.

[00:07:30]They stuck with the bill. Well, what we're talking about here now, Semler didn't just pull these numbers out of thin air. He had a methodology has an entire methodology page. Obviously, we're not going to go through that here, but just as an indication, if you go to that next one, a lot of it has to do with uh weapons, when weapons are used and how they're replaced. Why is Popular Information's estimate so much larger than even the Pentagon's internal figure? If you can put that one up. Um, factors include incomplete accounting of damaged and destroyed military assets.

[00:08:05]The exclusion of costs outside the department, including billions of dollars in State Department funded military aid to Israel, and here's the part that's the most important, a flawed method for tracking munition expenditures.

[00:08:17]This is likely the biggest factor. I know it's it's a little bit complicated, but I just I think we need to go through this so we can understand what we're talking about. The Pentagon tracks munition burn rate cost by merging operational logistics. The SM2 no. Yeah.

[00:08:36]Um what what munitions are fired and in what quantities with financial values?

[00:08:41]How much each one costs? The issue lies in how the Pentagon determines unit cost. And I highlight this. the war costs show up in the Pentagon's ledger and that media outlet's report are much lower than the cost the US public will ultimately be forced to pay. And that's the important part, Dr. Paul, what they're really going to pay to replace these. Now, go to the next one. Again, this is slightly complicated. Uh but in the example of one one missile interceptor, the SM2 interceptor, that's approximately 1.2 million. If 50 are withdrawn from the stockpile, the Pentagon's ledger would show 60 million in expenses for consuming the munitions.

[00:09:22]The accounting can lead to underounts when a rapidly consumed munition like the SM2 isn't planned to be purchased in the future. The Pentagon no longer buys SM2s. The interceptor is being replaced by the more advanced and expensive SM6.

[00:09:40]So each time an SM2 is fired, the Pentagon's accounting system registers the cost closer to the 1.2 unit cost instead of the $6.3 million unit cost of the SM6. It's a long way of saying, Dr. Paul, that the weapons used are old weapons, but to replace them, uh, the new weapons are costing multiple times more. So that's why it's completely out of whack, and we will end up spending at least this 72.

[00:10:07]You know, some of these people are and anticipate and they enjoy this. Oh, new development takes a long time to get them. So, sometimes even these planes and whatever they're building take a long time and never use. I wish there was more of that. What a waste it would be. But but the waste by go starting another war is more than uh we we need.

[00:10:29]And uh you you know um when head he said uh you know testified before Congress and gave some of these reports that are being challenged the article we just read are a little bit bolder with uh with how they described this. The $25 billion war cost given by Secretary Haketh and acting compel Hurst before Congress was a lie. Yeah, they just I mean he's very blunt about that and that was his his opinion. And uh this is this this gets back to the concept of natural law and the morality of the people in a free society because if if they're going to lie incessantly to get into Congress and to do these things and then when they do it they work real hard. There's a lot of conniving to hide things and it's so big. is the strongest argument for smaller government is not not give them so much opportunity. I mean when you look at the Federal Reserve system, there's a lot of opportunity to wheel and deal and move cash around and credit around and they deal in trillions of dollars and uh you don't really get an audit of of what what's going on. So when they get involved in wars, but the market ultimately is the uh is the decider. it uh it it there is a cost and that is the depreciation of our liberties and the depreciation and the devaluation of our dollar and uh and that's when things have to be changed.

[00:12:01]You just can't oh go on unless the people accept the idea that they want to want to live in total poverty or go to the and answer to the left and that's where I see danger signs when you see the elections in this country now some people declare you I'm a I'm a I'm a communist and and then they still elect them you know it's it's terrible >> and there's also the issue I mean we're spending this money this is money spent but it's also the lost opportunity the opportunity cost of this war. All of this money being spent to blow things up and then probably to rebuild them is money that could be spent doing a number of other things. Money in people's pockets, money in entrepreneurs pockets to create, you know, things that would make our lives better. You can't even calculate that >> instead of what you remember that terminology.

[00:12:50]Yeah. Well, you're using this money, but what could it be used on? And it really is based on the principle of ownership.

[00:12:59]who owns this money, who owns the earnings, you know, basically the government does, you know, and they give us permission to how right now we're in the midst of getting ready to pay property taxes. It doesn't make me very happy. That means that means I have to pay my rent to the government. Oh yeah, it's camouflage as being something uh you know, very worthwhile. But uh they don't realize that there are alternatives to this. It makes it makes it where it's more voluntary and it can be worked out and can be better and the prices would be kept lower. But big government is uh a very dangerous thing domestically and we worry about it and we can scare our people to death that the Iraqis are going to drop a big one on us and now it's the Iranians are going right now though it's turning out that maybe the Iranians are doing better than most people realize they would.

[00:13:54]>> Yeah. That's what adds insult to injury in a way. I mean, because this money is spent probably multiple times. Even what Semler points out, it's it's money spent on a war that achieved none of its objectives. Now, we would disagree with the objectives anyway, but even taken by their own accounts. They achieved nothing they wanted. In fact, they've made matters so much worse that a new objective objective, as Rubio himself said yesterday, a new objective is just to get us back to where we were before we started the stupid war to open the straight which was open before Trump decided to attack. But it's even worse than that. And uh there was an an expose out from the Washington Post if we go ahead one um uh and this the media just didn't report it. Iran has hit far more US military bases, military assets than reported. Satellite images show, and that's what's important. Now, you can see in this photo, if you're watching us rather than listening, how precision these weapons were. If you remember early on, President Trump tried to blame the Iranians for killing all those girls in a school by saying that their weapons are pretty non-precise. Uh, but you can look here, they hit exactly the targets they wanted to hit. Um, so go to the next one. Iranian air strikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at US military sites across the Middle East since the war began. Hitting hangers, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft, and key radar. The amount of destruction is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the US government or previously reported. So that means Dr. Wall, they're trying to hide how damaged these bases are are. They've done their best to hide it, but the post got a hold of some satellite photos showing just how bad. And the question that I had when I was looking at this, if they are trying to hide how badly the bases are damaged, are they also trying to hide how many US military personnel were killed or injured?

[00:15:50]>> Isn't it Isn't it amazing though how much cooperation they got from the media? You know, at the beginning they were showing a couple pictures and and they soon shut them down and they won't reveal us. But you know what really sorry the thing that struck me of the most interest is the fact that the uh the Iranians I knew they were doing more and they finally dawn on them that uh their their uh complacency and thinking that they wouldn't be uh you you know attacked like they ended up doing they prepared themselves and they had more intel than I ever dreamed of.

[00:16:29]And uh I think the way I look at this now, maybe this is pure propaganda for the Iranians, but I tell you what, when you read this, you say, you know, they're they're beating our military. Yeah. And and that's going to drive them nuts. And you know what they're going to do? They're just going to get more bombs. And they'll they'll say, "Well, that's why they're praying for peace right now.

[00:16:53]They're they're calling for a ceasefire and a peace. that is our side because uh they are not the Iranians are under threat. The other thing that was impressive was uh you know the friendly Arab nations that were helping us they ended up changing their mind. They won't let us our planes land in those countries now because uh they the Iranians knew where to where to go. they were easier targets and uh so that was that was a tremendous uh military uh you know success by them changing that policy >> and you know I mean Trump right now is between Iraq and a hard place because Iran has said if you attack us again we will take out all the infrastructure in the Middle East so that'll mean all the oil infrastructure everything of that nature uh you know this the fertilizer everything and we're already in a world crisis right now so if Iran takes those out it will be a global catastrophe. So if Trump does go back in, he's going to be responsible for creating this global catastrophe. But if he doesn't go back in, he has to face the fact that he launched a war based on lies. He listened to Netanyahu and the neocons in the US and he launched a war and he lost the war. So there's really nothing he can do.

[00:18:10]>> You know, it's sort of like in in inflation. You know, if we quit spending and printing money, that would solve the problem, but there would be pain and suffering. So this same way here on the military if they do it they have this uh the this insult that they will to so I would predict just like inflation the uh side of sanity of cutting spending won't happen and the side of saying that our that our military and our foreign policy is going to suddenly change um is uh is it's it's not likely. It's going to last for a while and uh it it's it's going to finally be maybe with another administration or who knows what but uh it just it just can't and won't continue and uh nobody can predict exactly what the consequence will be other than this country uh will suffer from you know decreased uh prosperity and decrease in personal liberty. It happens all the time.

[00:19:12]>> And these strikes, you know, they hit 14 US military sites in the region.

[00:19:17]Basically, every US military site in the region is either damaged or destroyed.

[00:19:21]Um, we're not going back. They're not going to be able to rebuild those bases.

[00:19:25]First of all, the countries in the region don't want US bases back because they were operating under the assumption that those bases would protect them. But in fact, what they did is painted a target on their backs. UAE, Saudi Arabia, uh they don't want these back and the US won't be able to get them back. Now, if you go to that next clip, unfortunately, those of you who are listening won't be able to see it, but you can see the the damage to these US bases is extensive. It's extremely well targeted. They knew exactly what they wanted to hit and they hit it with very accurate missiles. So, it's a warning as well. If you come back, we can do this again. We can do even more. So, this is the reason, Dr. Paul, why our founding fathers wanted Congress involved, wanted the president to have to make a case for war, not just wake up one morning, uh, get off a phone call with Netanyahu and decide to take us to war.

[00:20:16]>> You know, they've gotten some help. I'm sure it's reported that the the Russians have helped them for gather the intelligence. Yeah. And I think that's a sad story too because uh thinking about and and had uh experiencing some things that I I had during the cold war and then I thought the end of the cold war was a a very unique miracle. Yeah. there was no exchange and all of a sudden boom it was over and it was it just ran out of steam and then the then there was an opening and we started trading and talking and traveling and they were providing energy to eur Europe and and it was it's just a wonderful but here we go we start this war the one consequences is now we've driven we further are driving of course we were doing that in Ukraine to trying to further refuse to try to get along with Russia, which makes no sense whatsoever. And uh that that is something that I I don't think they they'll ever accept that. Oh no, the Russians are bad people. That's why we were trying to take care of them a long time ago. But uh yes, the Russians not not not the Russian people, the Russian, it was the Soviet system that was so bad. And uh but but that that is gone.

[00:21:40]It failed and and that's what's happening to us right now. Our system is failing but said but too many people still too many people still think that we have free enterprise and it's failing and that's a that's a fallacy.

[00:21:55]>> Yeah. Well, the funny thing is when people say the Russians are arming Iran, they're helping Iran. That's not fair.

[00:22:01]Well, we've been sending weapons to Ukraine to kill Russians for four years now. It's okay. You know, it's okay if we do it. Anyway, the last thing we wanted to touch on is we're laid out. I think it kind of ties everything together. And the result of this terrible spending on a wasteful war, maybe not directly, but certainly indirectly. If you go to that next one, and this is really sad, Dr. Paul, over 80% of young adults believe the economy is bad or terrible, and we are seeing the consequences all over America. Now, this was written by Michael Snyder from the economic collapse blog that featured on Zero Hedge. That is a really really sad thing to see young people losing completely losing faith in the future.

[00:22:42]But but it excuse excuse me but uh I think this is the uh this is the that the subject that attracted to me because uh they they are saying that uh you know we have all these problems we have but a a good politician that wants to change things has to connect the wars and the spending to these problems self ownership and all the wonderful things that are found in libertarianism could have prevented this and could solve the problem. And the young people, what I found is why I'm more optimistic than some is the young people really responded to the issue of self-reliance if they knew if they heard it exactly how it worked. Oh, you mean I get to keep all the money I earn? You mean I can make all my decisions on what kind of a lifestyle I have as long as I don't hurt people?

[00:23:38]>> Yeah. you know, and they were excited about it, but no, what do we do? We We're going the opposite direction.

[00:23:44]>> Yeah. I can't imagine any Republican right now that would appeal to young people like you did in your campaigns. I mean, they fell for they fell for Trump's uh siren songs and now they're completely against him. They're going to be cynical now. They're not going to trust anyone. But here's a little bit from that poll. Put this next one on.

[00:24:02]Uh, a new survey was just released found that a whopping 84% of Americans between the age of 18 and 24 believe economic conditions in the US are either bad or terrible. The survey was done by Generation Lab. It found more than eight in 10 young adults uh rate economic conditions bad or terrible. It was conducted on April 26th to 29th and found that 55% of the respondents aged 18 to 24 said they viewed the economy as bad while 29% said terrible. The same survey discovered 81% of Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 believe the economic conditions in the US are either bad or terrible. Now, these are the young people, Dr. Paul, who at that age uh would be thinking about uh settling down, maybe getting married, maybe buying a house. they're in their first job after college or those that didn't go to college are moving up the career path and for them to see this at the time of their life they should be so optimistic about their future uh it does not bode well I think for the future of this country >> and you know >> uh planning for the future requires you know financially saving money and the generation that I'm familiar with we were taught that you save money yeah >> and you and you 25 cents, 50 cents, you still save.

[00:25:23]Yeah. And uh that's saving for a rainy day type principle. And uh but right now it's a a mixed bag because if you if you make 10 times that much anomaly speaking, you know, dollars and dollars of dollars, they you can't even teach you can't teach them say save some, put half of it in the bank because the government's going to steal it by devaluing the currency. So if you save $100, it's worth $50. So that that is the system that has to be explained to uh to the people and before they're going to accept this. But uh because the biggest issue, economic issue with the uh campaign coming up is we can't afford it. We can't afford it. Well, how do you do a and everybody says, "Boy, that's a great issue. Just bring it out. They can't afford their gasoline. They can't afford healthcare." And they play that game up. What we can't afford is big government devaluing the currency and fighting wars and lying to the people.

[00:26:22]That's what we that that's what we can't stand anymore of. But that connection has to be made because right now they'll go in the wrong d there'll be that it's a contest on which way they go. But I keep te telling people I think you can reach young people if you have a if you have a a young idea. And to me freedom is a young idea theoretically you know that if they hear about it certainly in our last hundred years uh you know it's been a diminishing of some of these ideas and the founders had had a great has a had a good understanding of it tried to set up a system that would work a little bit better by giving the people more freedom but we have gone in the wrong direction but we have a an opening here where we really should be uh preaching the story about how liberty can solve our problems and make a better world.

[00:27:18]>> Absolutely. Amen. Well, I'm going to close out as you go that very last picture, remind you of our good friends at Moon Artisan Coffee who are our partners uh in our in this show. Uh you can see people picking coffee from uh Indonesia, Sumatrao and Mexico Chiapas.

[00:27:35]These are organic coffees. Uh, you can aim your phone at that Q code and go ahead and order your Ron Paul Revolution Blend coffee. It's the finest coffees from diverse nations. A harmonious worldclass coffee. You always talk about it, Dr. Paul. Bringing people together, bringing people together, bringing coffee together. So, go ahead and get yourself some of that. It's great coffee. And I want to thank everyone for watching the show. If you're watching it live, please remember to uh hit the like button, the thumbs up button, the heart button, and please share the show with your friends. We appreciate it.

[00:28:08]>> Very good. I want to thank our viewers today for tuning in. It's uh very important for us to have our allies uh working and uh and trying to get these uh country changed better toward the uh ideas of liberty because uh that is what I think is so important to prevent problems like we're having today. But they're also necessary to get us out of these problems. And one thing I'm convinced of, it's not complicated. And uh it's an idea that I'm always discouraged in the fact that we don't do a better job because uh how can we lose this argument intellectually when uh we have a system of government that protects personal liberty and it is a system that provides the most prosperity and peace of any other system. And yet we don't do a good enough job to come to to to head off the people who are the ones who are going to steal, lie, and cheat and start wars for all kinds of reasons. We should be able to win this intellectual battle. I want to thank everybody for tuning in today to the Liberty Report. Please come back soon.

[00:29:28]Thanks for watching the Ron Paul Liberty Report. Like and subscribe to help spread the message. And until next time, live free.

[00:29:38]>> This country is in a revolution and I happen to be lucky enough to be part of it.