Trillions of dollars and thousands of American lives.

The US can't afford to pay interest on its national debt, yet somehow they're fighting a war for Israel.

Important to remember that Trump is doing all this to prevent further damaging evidence of himself and minors being released by the Israelis. He avoided conflict as long as he could until Netanyahu paid him a visit two weeks ago followed up by rumours of an incriminating video began circulating. How long he will continue with this depends on how much global economic damage occurs, how much the Gulf states that pay him can tolerate, and how many US military personnel are killed.

Without reading the article, I'm going to guess a lot of poor people's lives in Iran and the USA.

I'll get back with the correct answer after I've read the article. If I don't update I was right.

Majd said that if Iran decided to start targeting oil infrastructure in the Persian Gulf or completely shut off access to the Strait of Hormuz, the economic consequences would be significant. “A financial hit on America and Western Europe is something that nobody wants for a long period of time, certainly not Trump,” he said. “So there’s going to be an advantage for Trump to have [an off ramp]. But if he really believes that Iran is then going to come in and say, ‘Enough, we give up, whatever you want, we’ll do,’ that’s very unlikely.”

that's the only leverage they seem to have and it sounds like the us empire has already neutralized it.