The Pentagon's casualty website listed 18 American troops killed in the Iran war on Wednesday — by Thursday, that number had dropped to 14. We can't imagine why.
According to three officials who spoke anonymously about internal discussions, the change came down to the administration pulling four names from the list: three troops killed in Jordan and one in northern Iraq over the weekend, all killed after Trump's April ceasefire declaration, the New York Times reports. Publicly, though, acting Pentagon press secretary Joel Valdez attributed it up to a "temporary data disruption," denoting it would be fixed soon.
Quietly pulling someone's name off an official casualty list, especially while the administration is still fielding tough questions about how the war's being managed, does read as putting optics ahead of honesty about who actually died and why.
The retired general in the piece put it plainly: it points to trouble being straight with the public about the war's real cost.
Via the New York Times:
In its casualty toll for the Iran war, the Pentagon has separated the number of troops killed under fire from those killed in accidents. As of Wednesday, its data showed that 11 service members were killed in hostilities and seven in accidents related to the war.
The seven killed in accidents include the crew of a U.S. military KC-135 refueling aircraft that crashed in Iraq in March, as part of the war campaign in neighboring Iran.
The stakes around these troop deaths are high largely because Trump and Hegseth made them high. Both men have repeatedly pinned personal blame on their predecessors, President Biden, Defense Secretary Austin, and Vice President Harris, for the deaths of the 13 U.S. military members killed in the 2021 Kabul suicide attack.
“These people shouldn’t have died,” Trump told podcaster Lex Fridman in 2024, according to the Times. “They died because of Biden and because of Kamala. They died just like if they pulled the trigger.”
Every accusation is a confession. What a disgrace to display such disregard for our country's fallen heroes who died in an unnecessary war that Trump launched.
