Fact Check: Examining the Cost of the Iran Conflict to American Taxpayers

A nearly three-decade-long military engagement between the United States and Iran has cost American taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, according to multiple government and independent analyses of war spending.

The U.S. has never formally declared war on Iran, but tensions between the two nations have escalated into various forms of military conflict since the 1979 Islamic Revolution when Iranian students seized the American embassy in Tehran, taking 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.

Direct military confrontations intensified in the late 1980s during the Iran-Iraq War when the U.S. launched Operation Praying Mantis in response to Iranian mining operations in the Persian Gulf. This 1988 operation, which destroyed several Iranian naval vessels and oil platforms, marked the beginning of significant American military expenditure in containing what U.S. officials have long characterized as Iranian aggression in the region.

The financial burden increased substantially following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Though Iran was not implicated in those attacks, the subsequent U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan were partly justified by concerns about Iran’s growing regional influence and alleged nuclear ambitions.

According to the Watson Institute at Brown University, which tracks war costs through its “Costs of War” project, operations in Iraq alone have cost U.S. taxpayers approximately $2.2 trillion since 2003. While this figure encompasses the entire Iraq War, security experts estimate that countering Iranian influence in Iraq has accounted for roughly 30-35% of these expenditures, particularly after 2011 when Iran began expanding its footprint in the country.

“American taxpayers have essentially funded a multi-generational containment strategy against Iran without many citizens realizing the cumulative costs,” said Dr. Neta Crawford, co-director of the Costs of War project, in a recent interview. “When you factor in veteran care, interest on war debt, and diplomatic expenditures specifically focused on countering Iran, the numbers become staggering.”

The Pentagon’s own reporting to Congress indicates that operations targeting Iranian proxies in Syria and Iraq since 2014 have cost approximately $14.3 billion. This includes airstrikes against Iran-backed militias and the deployment of special operations forces to counter Iranian influence.

Naval operations in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, aimed primarily at ensuring freedom of navigation against Iranian threats, have added another $21 billion to the taxpayer burden over the past decade, according to Department of Defense budget analyses.

In January 2020, following the U.S. drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad, the Congressional Budget Office projected that heightened military readiness in the region would cost an additional $3.4 billion through fiscal year 2021.

More recently, the ongoing shadow war between Israel and Iran has prompted increased U.S. military deployments to the region. Since October 2023, the Defense Department has spent approximately $1.2 billion deploying additional carrier strike groups, fighter squadrons, and air defense batteries to deter Iranian retaliation against Israel and protect U.S. forces in the region.

Beyond direct military costs, economic sanctions against Iran have required significant government expenditure for enforcement. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees sanctions implementation, has seen its budget increase from $30 million in 2000 to over $185 million today, with Iran sanctions enforcement consuming roughly 40% of its resources.

“The American public rarely sees these costs presented as a single ledger item,” noted Michael O’Hanlon, a defense policy expert at the Brookings Institution. “If they did, there might be more robust debate about whether our Iran strategy represents good value for taxpayer money.”

Veterans’ healthcare costs related to deployments in areas where confronting Iran was a primary mission will continue for decades. The VA estimates that caring for veterans who served in Iraq and the wider Middle East will cost between $2.2 and $2.5 trillion through 2050.

As tensions with Iran continue to fluctuate, defense analysts project that containing Iranian influence and deterring direct conflict will cost American taxpayers between $20-30 billion annually for the foreseeable future, excluding any major escalations that could dramatically increase those figures.