WASHINGTON (Realist English). More than two decades of U.S.-led military interventions have left an immense human and financial toll — a legacy sharpened once again this week as American warplanes bombed Iranian nuclear sites, reigniting conflict in the Middle East.
According to the Watson Institute at Brown University, U.S. wars since 2001 have directly killed approximately 940,000 people, and indirectly led to the deaths of an additional 3.6 to 3.8 million due to war-related famine, displacement, and disease. The total human cost is estimated at 4.5 to 4.7 million lives.
Financially, the U.S. has already spent an estimated $5.8 trillion on wars since 2001 — a figure projected to rise to $8 trillion when future veterans’ care and interest on war-related debt are included.
The newest front: Iran
On June 22, the U.S. deployed over 125 aircraft, including seven B-2 stealth bombers, to strike Iranian nuclear facilities at Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan. Each B-2 costs around $2.1 billion, and the mission involved the use of expensive bunker-buster munitions, highlighting the immense operational costs of renewed U.S. military action.
While Washington says the strikes were necessary to eliminate nuclear threats, their financial and political impact underscores the long-term burden of America’s sustained military presence in the region.
War by the numbers: Afghanistan and Iraq
The Afghanistan war, launched in 2001 to target al-Qaeda and the Taliban, resulted in 243,000 direct deaths, including in neighboring Pakistan. The Iraq war, which began in 2003, killed an estimated 315,000 people, despite no weapons of mass destruction ever being found.
Together, these wars caused over 558,000 direct deaths, according to the Watson Institute, and stand as the bloodiest chapters of the post-9/11 military era.
Breakdown of U.S. war spending (2001–2025):
- $2.1 trillion — Department of Defense war expenditures
- $1.1 trillion — Homeland Security operations
- $884 billion — Increases to the base DOD budget
- $465 billion — Veterans’ healthcare
- $1 trillion — Interest payments on war-related borrowing
- $2.2 trillion (projected) — Future veterans’ benefits through 2055
U.S. support for Israel: strategic ally, spiraling costs
Since 1959, the U.S. has provided Israel with $251.2 billion in inflation-adjusted military and economic aid. Under a current 10-year agreement, $3.8 billion per year is allocated through 2028.
In the aftermath of the October 2023 attacks, the Biden and Trump administrations sharply increased support, sending an additional $17.9 billion in 2024 alone, including:
- $6.8 billion in direct military financing
- $4.5 billion for missile defense systems
- $4.4 billion to replenish Israeli weapons from U.S. stockpiles
The war in Gaza: human devastation
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, as of June 24, 2025, the Israeli assault has killed at least:
- 56,077 people, with
- 131,848 injured
Since the March 18 ceasefire collapse, at least 5,759 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 20,000 wounded. Thousands more remain trapped or buried beneath rubble.
The numbers tell a sobering story — one not only of destruction, but of entrenchment. As the U.S. military machine once again mobilizes in the Middle East, the pattern of escalation, retaliation, and open-ended cost deepens. The true price of war is not only paid in dollars or aircraft, but in civilian lives, generations of instability, and the erosion of the very security these operations claim to defend.