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In a Truth Social post on Monday, President Donald Trump vowed to make Iran pay “many times over” for every death of a U.S. soldier in the war — an action that, if carried out, would likely constitute a war crime.
This past weekend, CENTCOM announced the three latest deaths of U.S. service members in the war, upping the total number killed to 17 soldiers. The Department of Defense (DOD) also announced on Monday that around 100 U.S. troops have been injured in the U.S.’s unauthorized war on Iran in the past two weeks. Estimates of total injuries on the U.S. side range from 400 to 500 service members since late February.
In response to announcements of the deaths — one of which was made shortly before Trump took part in celebrations at the World Cup final — Trump vowed retribution.
“Every time Iran kills an American Soldier they will pay for that killing many times over!” Trump wrote in his post, adding that the directive “has been passed on to Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Daniel Caine, and every Leader in the Military.”
Trump’s threat to disproportionately attack Iran over U.S. casualties may amount to a violation of international humanitarian law. Trump has also promised strikes on civilian infrastructure, which could amount to additional war crimes. The U.S.-Israeli coalition has already targeted civilian sites in Iran, including in the bombing of an elementary school in Minab that killed at least 168 people.
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Since the deterioration of the U.S.’s Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Iran earlier this month, the U.S. has bombed Iran almost every night.
Iran recently announced that the joint U.S.-Israeli war has killed at least 50 Iranian residents since hostilities ramped up, bringing the total number of Iranians killed to 3,500 people. U.S.-Israeli strikes on the country are estimated to have injured around 25,000 Iranian residents, though the exact figures are unknown.
The war has also had an enormous economic cost. With Iran taking control of the Strait of Hormuz, through which around 20 percent of the world’s oil is transported, gas prices have spiked, with the average cost of regular grade gasoline above $4 per gallon in the U.S. as of Tuesday. Experts have also attributed rising inflation rates in recent months to the war, with indicating that costs for goods have gone up by 3.5 percent compared to a year ago. And in terms of federal spending, estimates indicate that the United States has spent over $100 billion on the war.
At the onset of hostilities, Trump suggested that the war would last “four to five weeks.” The U.S. war on Iran — which never received congressional authorization, in violation of the Constitution and the War Powers Act — is now close to entering its sixth month, with no end in sight.
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