$11.3bn<\/a> during the first six days of the war, with an estimated $1bn subsequently spent on the war every day until the April 8 ceasefire.<\/p>\nAccording to Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, the $1bn per day figure is \u201ca little high\u201d.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Al Jazeera, he says the war \u201cwas very expensive in the first few days\u201d because the US used costly long-range munitions, including Tomahawk missiles. They cost $2.5m each, and the US military used hundreds of them.<\/p>\n
Cancian calculates that in addition to the $11.3bn spent on munitions, an additional $1.4bn should be added for combat losses and infrastructure damage and a further $26.5m for support costs, bringing the total for the first six days to $12.7bn.<\/p>\n
Cancian estimates that after the first week of its air strikes, the US spent \u201cabout half a billion dollars a day\u201d, and now, during the ceasefire, that figure is likely \u201cunder $100m per day\u201d because the US is not using any munitions.<\/p>\n
On a per-day cost basis, the Iran war may be one of the most expensive in recent history.<\/p>\n
According to figures from the Costs of War Project, the 20-year Afghanistan war cost an estimated $2.3 trillion, averaging more than $300m per day, while the eight-year Iraq War, which began in 2003, cost an estimated $2 trillion, averaging about $684m per day.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
\u2018Another prolonged war\u2019<\/h2>\n
Naveed Shah is the political director of Common Defense, a grassroots veteran-led organisation based in Washington, DC, that aims to engage, organise and mobilise veterans.<\/p>\n
Shah, who served in Iraq from 2006 to 2010, believes the US must defend its national interests and has a vital role to play in deterring threats, but too often overreaches with open-ended wars of choice that create more problems than they solve.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe current conflict with Iran is repeating the mistakes that led us to spending 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan: shaky evidence at best, moving goalposts and dangerous rhetoric that risks drawing us into another prolonged war,\u201d Shah tells Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, while we\u2019re deploying troops overseas, the government is trying to claw back the care we promised for our veterans,\u201d Shah says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe true cost of war extends far beyond the battlefield. It echoes for decades in veterans\u2019 bodies and minds and for their families. For the families of the troops who won\u2019t come home, it will be an empty seat at the dinner table and a hole in their heart for eternity,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
According to the Cost of War Project, the US is expected to spend at least $2.2 trillion on obligations for veterans\u2019 healthcare over the next 30 years.<\/p>\n
Iran war most unpopular in US history<\/h2>\n
According to a Reuters\/Ipsos poll from April 12, 60 percent of Americans disapprove of US military strikes on Iran. This is up from a 43 percent disapproval rating at the start of the war.<\/p>\n
Historically, US wars have mostly enjoyed a \u201crally around the flag\u201d effect, which causes low disapproval at the outset.<\/p>\n
The chart below compares the disapproval rating at the start and end of the five main wars the US has led since the 1950s.<\/p>\n
![\"INTERACTIVE](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/INTERACTIVE-ratings-US-WARS-APRIL-24-2026-copy-2-1777382952.png?quality=80\")
<\/p>\n
US consumers are paying the price<\/h2>\n
Marwa Jadoon, 40, from Oklahoma, whose name has been changed to keep her identity concealed, says her out-of-pocket expenses have increased by more than 35 percent over the past couple of months.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs someone with multiple considerably expensive health conditions, I\u2019m paying more than I\u2019ve ever paid before just to cover only my essential medications and recurring testing. It\u2019s limited my ability to afford additional treatments since healthcare costs are astronomical in the US. I\u2019ve cut costs in groceries and anything outside of essentials,\u201d Jadoon says.<\/p>\n
Jadoon feels she\u2019s been shortchanged with the policy shifts that came at the same time she was made redundant, further complicating her life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find it appalling that my tax dollars are funding a war when we have repeatedly been told that we cannot afford universal healthcare. At the end of last year, I lost my job and had to apply for unemployment and Soonercare,\u201d she says, referring to state-covered healthcare.<\/p>\n
She explains that unemployment benefits would not even cover her rent.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow can my tax dollars afford to pay for wars and foreign governments while I can\u2019t even receive Medicaid because they deemed $400 is too much a month? My phone bill alone is $116 a month. My student loan payments are almost $200 a month. I would love to see anyone in the current administration survive on $400 a week with no medical coverage,\u201d Jadoon says.<\/p>\n
Another woman in Oklahoma, who also wished to remain anonymous due to her job with the state government, says, \u201cThe war in Iran and its funding has made me feel cornered. I feel it at the gas pump, I feel it at the doctor, dentist. I feel it at the bank. I feel it when I\u2019m at the grocery store, thinking how exactly everyone is acting so calm. And it moves me, literally. Emotions carry little power. I\u2019m ready to do something about it. I\u2019ve been stolen from and lied to, and I\u2019ve had enough.<\/p>\n
According to the Climate Solutions Lab at the Watson Institute for Public and International Affairs at Brown University, the total consumer burden from the increase in petrol and diesel prices across the US as a result of the war on Iran is estimated at $27.8bn, roughly $200 per household.<\/p>\n
The national average price of petrol has increased nearly 40 percent from $2.90 per gallon ($0.76 per litre) before the war to $4.10 per gallon ($1.08 per litre) now.<\/p>\n
![\"INTERACTIVE](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/INTERACTIVE-fuel-cost-IN-US-WARS-APRIL-24-2026-copy-4-1777384719.png?quality=80\")
<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cWe called it \u2018moon dust\u2019,\u201d Jeffery Camp, a 61-year-old retired military veteran who lives in Sarasota, Florida, says when describing the terrain in Maidan Shar, Afghanistan, where he served with the United States Army from 2008 to 2009. The fine particles of dust there would find their way into \u201cyour vehicles, your equipment, your lungs\u201d, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20687,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-canada-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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