We learned today, while members of the House Armed Services Committee discussed the Pentagon's budget, that the U.S. war against Iran has cost $25 billion so far. Ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) took Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to task, using his own words against him.
Hegseth walked into that interview ready to declare victory, and walked out confused. First, Iran's nuclear program was an imminent threat — so dangerous that we needed to act immediately. Then, after the bombs dropped, it was obliterated. Problem solved, right?
Nope. Turns out "obliterated" just means the buildings are gone, but the ambitions are still floating around out there somewhere. So we started a war to stop a weapon that, according to Pete, wasn't quite a weapon yet — and now it's... still not quite a weapon, just with less real estate.
"So they haven't broken yet, okay?" Smith said. "We haven't gotten there yet for all of the..."
"Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated, underground, they're buried, and we're watching them 24-7," Hegseth insisted. "So we know where any nuclear material could be."
"Whoa, whoa," Smith said. 'We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear weapon was an imminent threat. Now you're saying that it was completely obliterated?"
Hegseth moved the goalposts.
"They had not given up their nuclear ambitions, and they had a conventional shield of thousands of missiles," the Secretary of War Crimes said.
"So Operation Midnight Hammer accomplished nothing of substance; it left us at exactly the same place we were before, so much so that we had to start a war," Smith shot back.
"Their facilities were bombed and obliterated, their ambitions continued, and they're building a conventional shield," Hegseth said.
"All right, let me try again," Smith said.
"It's the North Korea strategy, you know this very well," Hegseth said. "The North Korea strategy was use conventional missiles to prevent anybody from challenging them so they could slow off their way to a weapon. President Trump saw Iran at its weakest moment, took an action to ensure, in a way that only the United States of America could do with our Israeli partners, to ensure their conventional shield was brought to build, which we've done."
Yeah, sure thing, buddy. Operation Midnight Hammer accomplished roughly what you'd expect from a guy who shares military plans in a group chat: a lot of noise, and a catchy name.
