NPR.

This is the indicator from Planet Money.

I'm Ricky Mulvey.

And I'm Darian Woods.

Lately on the show, we've been discussing some of the broader economic costs of the U.S. Israel war with Iran. And those

expenses vary day by day. Yeah, finding out how much money war costs is a difficult task in the

moment. The Center for Strategic and International Studies first estimated that the early days

of Operation Epic Fury cost roughly $900 million per day.

More recently, the New York Times reported that Pentagon officials estimated the cost to be

more than twice that number, about $1.9 billion per day. And even these numbers don't tell

the whole story. These estimates are the tip of an iceberg.

Today on the show, we're looking at the costs of Operation Epic Fury, why post-9-11 wars

cost trillions of dollars more than early estimates suggested, and the underestimated expenses

that American taxpayers will be paying now and far into the future.

That's all after the break.

Wars are expensive, and it's difficult to find out just how much one costs in the middle of it.

Mark Gansion is a retired U.S. Marine Colonel.

He's also done budgeting for the Department

of Defense and helped come up with that daily $900 million or so estimate, but that number is

already significantly higher. The munitions mix appears to have been a little richer than we had

first estimated, and the damage to the bases is higher than we had

estimated.

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