By Ron Unz
The Unz Review
March 17, 2026
The American-Israeli war against Iran began a couple of weeks ago and seemed very much a David-vs-Goliath contest, with combat operations likely to be extremely one-sided.
In recent years, America's annual military spending has been roughly a trillion dollars, while Iran's budget was merely $8 billion. Some estimates put Iran's true outlays as considerably higher, but hardly enough to level the playing field.