Defense Secretary Hegseth Testifies U.S. War on Iran Has Cost $37.5 Billion

The U.S. continues to strike Iran for an 11th straight day as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testified on Capitol Hill that the cost of war has soared to over $37 billion. That’s an increase of nearly $8 billion since the last public estimate. Hegseth also asked Congress to approve tens of billions of dollars in additional Pentagon funding to finance the war on Iran. In retaliation, Iran struck U.S. bases in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan on Tuesday. Kuwaitis are reportedly forced to ration electricity after Iranian strikes on power infrastructure raised fears of outages. This comes as far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said Israel has “no interest” in joining U.S. military operations against Iran. The U.S. reportedly requested Israel to stay out of the most recent conflict while negotiations were ongoing following a so-called ceasefire agreement brokered last April. Meanwhile, the Trump administration approved a deal with Saudi Arabia that allows the country to enrich its own fuel for nuclear reactors. This is President Trump speaking from the Oval Office yesterday. President Donald Trump: “Iran is bigger. It’s more — it’s a more complex situation. But we’re probably doing equally as well, if you look at the damage that’s been done. And again, as I said to the young man that just posed the question over here, if we left today, it would take them decades to rebuild. And I don’t believe they could ever rebuild. And honestly, they haven’t seen anything yet. We’ve been nice.” www.democracynow.org