Two critiques of the posting.
First, it accepts the left’s false partition of the Iraq campaign from WW IV (usually ill-named the ‘Global War on Terror’), just as it accepts the false paritioning of the Vietnam and Korean campaigns from the whole of WW III (usually called the Cold War).
Second, it’s missing our first foreign war: the Barbary War. Which it is good to remember, since our first foreign war was also against militant Islam.
I don’t disagree with your comments. I used the most commonly accepted definition of US wars.
Feel free to post numbers for our wars as you define them.
Given your criteria, WWIII, the Cold War, would be far and away the most expensive of our wars, mainly because it lasted over 40 years.
The Barbary War was actually two wars. One fought from 1801 to 1805, the other during 1815.
The Second Barbary War was much more successful. After tangling with the Royal Navy in the War of 1812, Barbary pirates weren’t hard to handle.