US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has denied that the US-Israel war on Iran is “a quagmire” and claimed critics of the operation posed a greater threat to the US than Iran itself, as he came under pressure to set out Washington’s strategy for the conflict.
Appearing before the House armed services committee alongside Gen Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, the US defence secretary asked lawmakers to approve a $1.5 trillion budget in military spending – and then described some of them as “the biggest challenge” to the war effort.
“The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he declared. These remarks did not appear in prepared written statement submitted to the committee.
Two months into a conflict that US president Donald Trump predicted would last four to six weeks, Hegseth invoked the US’s long and painful deployments in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan – wars he previously criticised bitterly – as a benchmark for endurance.
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The war against Iran, he said, was “an existential fight for the safety of the American people” and the administration was “proud of this undertaking”.
Protesters’ chants rang from the hallways, calling Hegseth and Caine war criminals. Many members of the public struggled to be admitted into the hearing.
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Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself holding a weapon amid explosions with the caption “NO MORE MR. NICE GUY” on social media on Wednesday, and wrote that Iran “better get smart soon”.
He also told the Axios news website that he stands prepared to keep Iran under a naval blockade until a deal is reached, raising the prospect of a prolonged conflict.
The financial cost of the war meanwhile continues to grow: Jules Hurst, chief financial official for the Pentagon, told the committee that the estimated cost for the US is $25 billion and counting, mostly from munitions and including operations, maintenance and replacing equipment.
Tensions soared when the California Democrat John Garamendi was given the floor, and hammered Hegseth over the “astounding incompetence” which he argued had led to “political and economic disaster at every level”.
“The president has gotten himself and America stuck in a quagmire of another war in the Middle East,” Garamendi said. “He is desperately trying to extricate himself from his own mistakes; it is in America’s, and indeed the world’s, interest he succeed in that.”
Hegseth was incensed by the statement, particularly around the invocation of another quagmire in the Middle East, and attacked the congressman for his speech.
“Who are you cheering for here? Who are you pulling for?” Hegseth shot back. “Your hatred for president Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission and the historic stakes that the president is addressing that the American people support.
“You call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement,” Hegseth added.
Trump has “stared [Iran] down” and will now “get a better deal than anyone ever has and ensure Iran never has a nuclear weapon”, Hegseth claimed.
With the Strait of Hormuz now effectively shut for two months and little sign of it opening soon, oil prices continue to rise. By Wednesday evening, a barrel of Brent crude climbed to $119, a wartime high.
Iranian officials, meanwhile, showed no sign of backing down.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Wednesday accused Trump of seeking to force Iran to surrender through economic pressure and internal divisions, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.
“Trump explicitly divides the country into hardliners and moderates and then immediately talks about a naval blockade to force Iran to surrender through economic pressure and internal divisions,” Ghalibaf said in an audio message addressed to Iranians.
The only solution to “counter the enemy” is national unity, he added. – The Guardian
