Hegseth asks for billions for the Iran war, is there an end game?

0:00It's Consider This where every day we go deep on one big news story. Today, after more than two months without an Iran war update, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth testifies before Congress. Hegseth was on Capitol Hill asking Congress for billions for the Defense Department. $1.5 trillion is what the president seeks and what we need to defend the country. And the Secretary of Defense wants tens of billions of that urgently. It's the first time in a long time lawmakers have publicly pressed the administration on its strategy and the cost of that strategy. And senators, mostly Democrats, had questions for Hegseth about the size of the request and the overall strategy of the war.

0:39Here's Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed. We're talking about the war you started, not a situation in which oil was flowing freely. There was no conflict. We weren't losing personnel as a result of Iranian actions. Washington Democratic Senator Patty Murray was even more direct. So I'll be blunt. The truth is your request does not make a lot of sense. Consider this. Despite promises the Iran war would be decided quickly and decisively, the fighting continues. Does the Trump administration have an exit strategy for Iran? And is the U.S. heading into another forever war?

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2:41It's Consider This from NPR. NPR's Quill Lawrence was watching as Republican and Democratic senators peppered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Cain about the war. he joined me to take through what he learned. Straight from their opening statements, I have to say that neither General Cain nor Secretary Hegseth mentioned Iran at all in their opening. And this has to be noted, Secretary Hegseth didn't, I didn't hear him mention the casualties over the weekend. The senators who opened the hearing and General Cain did offer their condolences. I don't know how much to make of that fact, but it's a fact.

3:17When the question started, they were pretty bluntly dodged by the secretary and even the chairman. You heard Democrat Patty Murray just a second ago. She later asked Hegseth about President Trump's proposed toll on traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, asking who talked the president out of it. And Hegseth's answer was that the U.S. is blocking Iran's ports. Murray quoted Hegseth himself saying a few months ago that Iran's missiles were destroyed. And Hegseth's answer to that was that Iran is at its weakest point in 47 years. So they were fairly well talking past each other. Republicans, very few of them even asked questions about the war.

3:54They focused on other budget issues, except it has said, as you mentioned, Louisiana Republican John Kennedy, who scolded Hegseth and General Cain for not answering questions. He said the topic was as serious as four heart attacks and a stroke. And he wanted he wanted straight answers. So it sounds to me like we didn't get much new information. What was going to be the first chance in months? We'll just note here there has been no Pentagon briefing since May. Do you think that the senators know what's happening with Iran? I don't think they do. Several senators have complained about a dearth of information coming out of the Department of Defense.

4:31The real Pentagon press corps was kicked out last year, including NPR. A military official who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed to NPR that the Pentagon is slow-walking information about wounded troops, for example. And the DOD spokesman yesterday confirmed that there have been 100 wounded in just the past two weeks. And that came out under some pressure from the press. And the same with some former military officers. They tell me they're in the dark. They don't know how much damage has been done to bases in the region, to U.S. bases. They don't know how many aircraft have been lost on those bases.

5:07So it's very hard to draw lessons, for example, about how to defend against drones without these facts. And meanwhile, the war with Iran continues to escalate. Ten straight days of bombardment and four Americans at least killed over the weekend. And still no new information about how that happened? Right. President Trump said today that some Iranian missiles had somehow slipped through, he said. And he seemed to suggest that the U.S. wasn't maybe in control of those missile defense systems on that base in Jordan. But the soldiers who died were all assigned to air defense teams. I mean, Quill, this war started with regime change.

5:44Then it was about keeping Iran from a nuclear weapon. And now it seems to be mostly about opening the Strait of Hormuz, which was not closed before the war. Help us understand. Yes. I mean, these Democratic Senator Murray listed those reasons given by the White House in her opening statement. And the president's statements over the past five months have sometimes been ignored or quickly walked back, like his suggestion to put a U.S. toll on traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. or they've been contradictory, like ceasefire deals being dead, but also still under negotiation. And many Democrats on the committee pointed out that whatever rationale for the war as it evolves, none of these have landed well with the American people.

6:26Certainly not well enough to understand why Americans are dying, albeit in relatively small numbers. But these are young soldiers who have died over the weekend. You know, Private Isabella Gonzalez was just 19 years old. NPR's Quill Lawrence, thanks. Thank you. Four service members have been killed since fighting reignited with Iran. It's leaving families of soldiers and sailors wondering what happens next. Steve Walsh from member station WHRO in Norfolk talked to some of those families and joined me to share more about what he learned. So, Steve, I understand you were recently waiting with family members at the port in Norfolk when USS Fort Lauderdale came home after a long deployment.

7:07Tell us what you saw and heard. Right. So this was the homecoming for the amphibious transport ship, which carries sailors and Marines. They left Norfolk with the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group last August, but they were the last of the ships to return, and they spent over 11 months on deployment. I should note they were down in the Caribbean, originally part of the effort to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, but they stayed in the region for months, including providing aid after the devastating earthquake there. So while a lot of the focus has been on Iran, these sailors were also out at sea for almost a year.

7:42What did people you talked to say about how that affected their families, especially now as we're seeing the operations around Iran heating up again? So I talked with Ensign Ryan Silver, who was waiting on the pier for his wife, Lieutenant Olivia Silver. I think it's something you really have to experience in order to know. 11 months is easy to say, but if you think about what you were doing 11 months ago, So it will likely feel like an eternity ago. And to do it without your favorite person in the world is not easy. And by the way, he was holding a very large bouquet of flowers. I mean, Steve, that just sounds really tough.

8:19It sounds like he has had enough of these long deployments. Oh, yeah. They were both really ready for this to be over. On the other hand, Silver says the two of them are naval officers. They're both following the war in Iran. He says neither of them are deterred by the prospect of more long deployments. Ultimately, we all signed up to support and defend the country. And if this is what smart people higher up think that we need to do in order to keep defending the country, then we're here to do it. And Steve, NPR has confirmed that the Department of Defense was slow walking news on casualties. What about communications for the families of these service members, particularly as they face these long deployments?

9:02Well, you know, for one thing, these sailors are at sea a lot longer. Typically, carriers pull into port every month or so to resupply and let the crews decompress. But since Iran is striking U.S. bases in the Middle East, that has drastically limited the Navy's options. So part of the bombing campaign against Iran, the carrier USS Lincoln has spent more than 200 days at sea. That's more continuous time at sea than during the COVID-19 outbreak. Sailors can say very little about what they've been doing during the months when they're away from home. Valerie Hepburn, she waited on the pier for her son, Justin Pless, who works in IT on the USS Fort Lauderdale.

9:44This was his first deployment, and he was gone for close to a year. She's worried about what's going to happen next. Absolutely. It's scary because you just never know what's happening. Everything has been a shock. Every time something happens, it's just, we just don't know what direction we're going in this country. So, yeah, I'm a little afraid for him. And finally, Steve, I just want to note that the slow flow of information from the Pentagon keeps coming up. As I understand, there hasn't been a press conference since May. Do we know why? Yeah, since May. And no real reason given. And when it comes to what's next, I heard from some of these same sentiments from numerous families of sailors on other ships coming in and out of Naval Station Norfolk.

10:27They just don't know what to expect. That's Steve Walsh reporting from Norfolk, Virginia. Thank you. Thanks. This episode was produced by Lauren Hodges, Gabriel Sanchez, Caden Mills, and Tyler Bartlam. It was edited by Jenea Williams, Andrew Sussman, Justine Klein, and Courtney Dorney. Our interim executive producer is Courtney Dornig.

10:54It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.

11:04Nukes. What can't they do? Nuclear weapons, I call it cure for the cancer of global conventional conflict. On a new episode of Are We Doomed? the view within the U.S. government that the only way for peace is more nukes.

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