Hegseth sagt, dieser Krieg habe 25 Milliarden Dollar gekostet. Ich habe den wahren Betrag gezählt (Geschenkartikel)

The author didn’t tally up anything. Instead, he throws out a bunch of hypothetical costs before explaining what is actually happening in the final paragraph. The Pentagon is saying this war cost $25 billion because most of it was already paid for. The US has a massive military budget to allow the country to conduct a massive military operation with no disruption to the budget and military industrial complex.

As for the hypothetical costs, it is clear the global economy took a hit due to the disruption of the oil flow. However, all those costs would quickly be regained if Iran is able to re-enter the global market as a normal country. Who knows if that would actually happen, but the long term costs completely depend on the ultimate outcome.

The article also acknowledges that a major cost to the War on Terror is the medical costs for the Service Members who served then. This conflict will have nowhere near that cost due size and nature of the involvement of the Service Members serving in this conflict.