By Jon Hochschartner
President Donald Trump’s imperialist assault on Iran, which has claimed countless innocent lives, and will take many more before it’s finished, is an unauthorized, unprovoked war of aggression. Besides being immoral and illegal, under both domestic and international law, the conflict is also a colossal waste of money. Pentagon officials told United States lawmakers just the first six days of the war cost more than $11 billion, not including the money required to build up military hardware and personnel, among other things.
Of course, this is just the beginning. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated the early period of the Iran war cost $891.4 million each day. Perhaps Trump will find a way to extricate himself from the conflict sooner rather than later, but it’s worth noting the Middle Eastern wars launched during President George W. Bush’s time in office dragged on for decades. For those who don’t remember, our leaders proclaimed a humanitarian mission and always described victory as right around the corner.
The money spent on the Iran conflict could be put toward any kind of more productive purpose. For instance, the United States could put these resources toward free healthcare, free college education, or rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. Personally, as an animal activist, I’d like to see a portion of these funds invested in cultivated-meat research, which I view as the promising means of reducing nonhuman suffering and premature death. The only limit to the different ways we might use this money is our imagination.
That said, assessing the financial cost of the Iran war purely in terms of military spending seems hopelessly reductive. After all — with Iran closing the Straight of Hormuz, a key shipping lane for oil — my understanding is there is a decent chance Trump’s war could crash the global economy. That Iran would do this in response to being attacked was widely expected, though it seems to have taken the White House completely by surprise. Perhaps, in a silver lining, this mess will accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels.
Meanwhile, as this is all going on, Trump is already plotting to overthrow the government of one of our Caribbean neighbors. “I do believe I’ll have the honor of taking Cuba,” he recently told reporters. “I think I can do anything I want with it.” If readers believe Trump is motivated by concern for democracy in the island nation, I have a bridge to sell you. American leaders have long wanted to turn Cuba back into a pliant, vassal state and, on a personal level, Trump, I believe, is eager to distract from his numerous domestic failures.
Again, his imperialist adventures aren’t just morally wrong and against the law. They also represent a tremendous financial opportunity cost. The old Tupac Shakur line about how ‘they’ve got money for wars but can’t feed the poor’ inevitably comes to mind. With the funds spent to kill innocents in Iran and elsewhere, we could so much. Our country might invest in cellular-agriculture development, as I would like, but also strengthen our fragile social safety net, so what we call ‘the American Dream’ is a little closer to reality than it is now.
Jon Hochschartner lives in Connecticut. He is the author of a number of books, including The Animals’ Freedom Fighter: A Biography of Ronnie Lee, Founder of the Animal Liberation Front. Visit his blog at SlaughterFreeAmerica.Substack.com.
