Desk Report,
How much has the US war cost in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and how many people have been killed?
The US military involvement in the Middle East has long been a focus, and this week it was further intensified by airstrikes on at least three Iranian nuclear facilities.
How much has the US war cost in the Middle East and Afghanistan, and how many people have been killed?
According to a briefing by General Dan Kaine, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, seven US B-2 stealth bombers dropped at least 14 bunker-busting bombs on Iran’s Fordo and Natanz nuclear facilities. Each B-2 stealth bomber costs about $2.1 billion. The bombs dropped also cost several million dollars.
More than 125 warplanes took part in the US operation in Iran on Saturday night, US officials said. They included bombers, fighter jets, tankers, surveillance aircraft and support aircraft. Each aircraft costs billions of dollars to deploy and operate.
The US spends more on its military than any other country in the world. The United States, the world’s top military spender, spends more than the next nine countries combined. The United States spends nearly three times more than China and seven times more than Russia.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States spent $997 billion on its military in 2024, accounting for 37 percent of total global military spending.
According to an analysis by the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, since 2001, US-led wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and other post-9/11 conflicts have killed an estimated 940,000 people. The United States is directly responsible for these deaths.
The people on the list above were killed directly in war or conflict. Indirect deaths caused by war are not included in this list.
Many more people have died from starvation, lack of health and medical care, or various diseases caused by war in the conditions created by the war.
The indirect death toll from the US war in Afghanistan and the Middle East for more than two decades is 3.6 to 3.8 million. The total death toll, both direct and indirect, is 4.5 to 4.7 million. This procession of deaths has not stopped yet, and the number is constantly increasing.
At least 30,000 members of the US military have been killed in the war during this time, of whom at least 7,052 are US soldiers, 8,189 are mercenaries, and 14,874 are allied forces.
