ASN NEWS USA — NEWS FLASH
WASHINGTON (ASN NEWS USA)— Five Democratic senators are demanding the Pentagon stop hiding the true cost of the war in Iran, pressing U.S. Central Command for a full public accounting of the conflict’s price tag in both dollars and destruction.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts led a letter to Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, signed by Sens. Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, and Gary Peters of Michigan. The letter, first reported by USA TODAY, asks the Pentagon to publicly reveal the estimated cost of the damage to American bases and facilities, a timeline for beginning repairs, and how much it has spent adapting new facilities to replace what Iranian strikes destroyed.
The lawmakers blasted the Trump administration’s “ongoing efforts to hide the true cost of this war” as “outrageous and unacceptable,” writing that “the American people deserve to know the full cost of the Trump administration’s unauthorized war against Iran.”
The numbers already on the record are staggering. U.S. Central Command told Congress the war has cost $43.6 billion as of September 3, and CNN reported the Pentagon later put the figure at $45.1 billion including extra fuel costs. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the war will continue costing $2 billion to $3 billion per month. More than 50,000 U.S. service members have been deployed to the region, with at least 21 killed and 865 injured since the conflict began.
What the public has not been told is the cost of repairing American bases across the Middle East. A Pentagon inspector general report found Iranian ballistic missile and drone strikes damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan.
Stay tuned to ASN News USA for updates on this developing story. Reported by ASN News USA. Visit asnnewsusa.com or follow @ASNNewsUSA for updates. ASN NEWS USA: Real News. Real Voices. Real Change.