Pentagon seeks more than $200 billion in budget request for Iran war

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Source: Washington Post

WP Exclusive
Pentagon seeks more than $200 billion in budget request for Iran war

Some White House officials do not think the Defense Department's request has a realistic shot of being approved in Congress, one senior administration official said.

March 18, 2026 at 7:04 p.m. EDT


President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in September. (Tom Brenner/For The Washington Post)

By Noah Robertson, Jeff Stein and Riley Beggin

The Pentagon has asked the White House to approve a more than $200 billion request to Congress to fund the war in Iran, according to a senior administration official, in an enormous new ask that is almost certain to run into resistance from lawmakers opposed to the conflict.

That number would far surpass the costs of the administration’s massive airstrike campaign to date and instead seek to urgently increase production of critical weaponry expended as U.S. and Israeli forces have struck thousands of targets over the past three weeks, according to three other people familiar with the matter, who confirmed that the Defense Department is seeking packages of that size.

The funding request is likely to stage a major political battle in Congress, as public support for the effort remains tepid and Democrats have been sharply critical. Republicans have signaled support for the forthcoming supplemental request but haven’t committed to a legislative strategy, or found a clear path to surpass the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.

{snip}

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/03/18/iran-cost-budget-pentagon/

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Edited on Thursday morning to add two paragraphs of text. I copied them from Joe.My.God.

https://www.joemygod.com/2026/03/pentagon-seeks-over-200-billion-to-fund-iran-war/

[JBTaurus83]

1. Hell No

And once again there will be no mechanism for paying.

[Norrrm]

2. The last report I saw said they spent 11 or 12 billion$.

Trump seems to be greedy in his graft.

[Prairie Gates]

3. Fuck's sake

Just say NO!

[SheltieLover]

4. Absolutely not!

[UpInArms]

5. Fuck that shit

They starve and murder children, put people in concentration camps and destroy the constitution

No more money

[Buddyzbuddy]

6. Threats to press, no need to get Congessional approval for War,

numerous war crimes committed during Diva Whiskey Pete's tenure.

Nah, you should fund the war the same way you're running it, PRIVATELY and badly.

[IcyPeas]

7. Why? The war's almost over. (Said trump)

[JBTaurus83]

8. Half would probably go to Israel

For re-stocking their military and propping up their economy which is not doing well.

Editing to add, probably bail outs to our UAE and Saudi “friends” as well.

[progree]

18. "I think the war is very complete, pretty much"

[mahina]

26. Perfect!

[jls4561]

9. Tell Pete to start saving for it. If he reduces the bill for lobster and steak, he should be able to buy the planes he

lost some time in the next millennium.
I hear all you need is one piece of chicken, a floret of broccoli, a corn tortilla and one other thing.

[IbogaProject]

10. Throw a bake sale guys

"It will be a great day when our schools get all the money they need and the Air Force has to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber"
Creator(s): Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, sponsor/advertiser

[JBTaurus83]

11. The Pentagon could also try

Accounting for the over 2 trillion dollars that is “unaccounted for”. Imagine running a business with those rounding errors. These are the people who say everything should be run like a business.

[Deuxcents]

12. I had that on a poster and hung it in my apartment back in the day.

[msongs]

13. repeal tax breaks for billionaires. that oughta turn up some serious money nt

[durablend]

14. Try Gofundme

I hear that works

[Hugin]

21. Bake sales... n/f

[Fla Dem]

15. That is one ugly office.

First time I saw such an expansive view and I wish I hadn't seen it.

[cliffside]

17. +100 nt

[Enter stage left]

16. Take it from the DHS, with all the money that came in" The Big Beautiful Bill" being spent on...

Border Patrol, the asinine border wall, and funding the domestic terrorists referred to as ICE!

If I remember correctly, in TSF's first term, he pulled money from the military budget to start his "Big Beautiful Wall".

Or, hold a bake sale like those who need medical care.

[Ford_Prefect]

19. Tell them to get it from Donald. It is his grandiose obsession, let him pay for it.

He certainly has stolen enough tax money to do so.

[Scalded Nun]

20. Fucking outrageous

[Hugin]

22. Why is the Washington Post using a photo from September?

Pathetic.

[Skittles]

23. but FUCK YOU if you need affordable healthcare insurance

JFC

[progressoid]

24. We haven't paid for the last one yet.

[orleans]

25. pentagog should go fuck off nt

[mahina]

27. In 1969 a young second Lieutenant who had volunteered to serve in the special forces in the tri-border region of Viet-

nam arrived in the Central Highlands village where he was to spend the next year embedded with a Jarais tribe of Montagnards.

In the orientation materials and reports allegedly written by his predesessors, provided to him by the US Army, he anticipated arriving at a village that had the following:
A well built school equipt with desks, chalkboards, made of concrete, fully staffed with an administration including a principal, teachers, and maintenance workers. These posts were all on payroll every month.

A complete clinic with medics (Bouxi,) an administration and maintenance workers also all on payroll every month,

Wells made of cement, without regard to the fact that Montagnards will only drink running water such as that in a stream. Thete are animist people. They will never drink standing water as would be found in the wellbut that functionally did not exist anyway, as it was made with such inferior cement, overmixed with sand to steal every possible penny, that it was crumbling.

When he reported to his superiors in Da Nang in the cool comfort of their air conditioned offices what he had found on the ground, he expected that they too would be alarmed at the corruption. guess what? They not want to hear about it. Worse, if he said anything else about it to anybody he would be punished- and I mean very severely. To show him that they meant business, they no longer allowed him any money at all. He could only survive on what he could catch and kill himself or trade for, 100% independently of any support from the US Army.

Can you just imagine that for a moment? Just a few months ago you were the head of the marketing department at a bank in your hometown. You volunteered your ass in there, thinking you were doing the right thing you got there and you found out that you were in the middle of a giant corruption racket. And now the army wasn’t even hoing to give you money to be fed, much less provide any meaningful material support to the villagers.

How’s that for some bullshit?

Had did it not been for a network of people he knew if from where he grew up, he doesn’t think he would’ve lived.

That the immense gift of his sacrifice and service was so grossly abused for nothing was only part of what broke his heart there.

You know it has not gotten any better.

It’s a disgrace on a scale I cannot even comprehend, and here we are all over again, blowing people up with our tax money. It makes me want to vomit all day.
I am still angry for what happened to my beautiful father. I only found out after he passed from his written documentation to the VA. He had quit the army days before he would’ve been eligible for his pension. He had just absolutely had it.

Assholes from the CIA kept showing up at our front door, trying to recruit him, and he told them to fuck off. He was a very tall, very imposing and very intelligent man who had a huge heart and who loved his country.

I think it’s time for us to change, people. For real for real.

[Old Crank]

28. Nice picture of the

Louis XIV brothel office.