I'd argue that Iran is fundamentally different from every other war the US has waged since WW2 because it's the first time the US decided to directly take on an opponent that can match them technologically. What happened here is that technology has advanced past the point where US military doctrine makes sense. It simply doesn't account for stuff like cheap drones, or IR based AA systems which Iran has. Iran also has access to Russian and Chinese satellite data and advanced missiles that US is unable to intercept. On top of that, Iran is fighting on their home turf while the US has a logistics nightmare of ferrying weapons, troops, and other supplies across the ocean.

And what makes this war different is the fact that the US was actually visibly defeated in head to head combat. It's not like Vietnam or Afghanistan where they razed the country to the ground and abused these people for years on end until they got bored and left. This time around, Iran was able to respond decisively with their own weapons and destroy US based, aircraft, it was able to track down and attack US troops hiding in hotels across the Gulf states. This has simply never happened before.

I for one, am thoroughly enjoying all this winning. Very impressive

Each MQ-9 Reaper costs around $14.5 million USD¹. This includes parts currently under 100% economic sanctions that are only sourced in China, so the real cost to replace is almost definitely higher at this point. Rare Earth Metals ain't the expensive or rare part.

As a fun experiment why don't we see what took down these drones that cost as much as a brand new elementary school and all teacher salaries for a year;

Each Shahed drone costs $15,000-$50,000 depending on the model these killed at least two.

Each S-400 9M96E Missile costs around $300,000. These are the short range missiles that would be used by Iran's air defense for the low flying Reapers.

Misgah recoilless rifle ($150,000-$1,000,000) (This is confirmed at least 1 reaper down.

The Russian Verba system (~$200k per missile)

So basically the max cost on Iran's side is $30 million USD, though realistically this is likely closer to $10-15 million USD.

The max cost on the US side is approximately 45 elementary schools or around $450 million USD.

Or in other words, this is why Americans are so much more poor on average than Iranians and other "third world" or "developing nation" citizens. Did you know fewer than 2/3ds of Americans own their own home? That's fucking unheard of in Iran. There'd be actual riots and not US led ones overnight if it ever got that bad.

¹There are no official numbers except bundled (staff, weapons resupply, support cost, actual cost of vehicle) fact sheet propaganda numbers.

Would you rather that money go towards feeding school children?

These are only the ones the US has admitted to losing.