Not since Vietnam have we seen a more systematic effort by an administration to lie about the nature, costs, consequences, and results of a war than we have seen from the White House on Iran.
What we have here is an illegal, unnecessary war wrapped in a strategic fiasco inside a huge cover-up.
At any other time in our history, the scope and scale of this would generate a scandal, major congressional hearings, and, in the end, result in the likely firing of the Secretary of Defense. Senior military officers, should they be found to have aided and abetted in the cover-up, would also be forced out of their jobs.
A major new story in the Washington Post headlined, “Iran has hit far more U.S. military assets than reported, satellite images show,” reveals yet another dimension of Trump and Hegseth’s efforts to lie about just how disastrous their ill-considered war of whim has been. The Post conducted an independent analysis of publicly available satellite imagery and found it contained evidence that Iran has “damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites across the Middle East since the war began.” It goes on to assert, “The amount of destruction is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government or previously reported.”
These revelations alone would be enough to trigger outrage at any other time in history. But they are noteworthy not because they reveal an aberration in how the administration has communicated about the war to Congress and the American people, but because they are so consistent with other administration efforts to mislead about the war.
The war, of course, began with a serious communications gap as the President and Hegseth failed to provide a coherent or even plausible rationale for launching attacks on Iran in late February.
Further, the explanations provided were found to be based on misrepresentations or gross inconsistencies. The most notable of these pertained to the Iranian nuclear program, which the president had said was “obliterated” last year—and yet, imminent Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons (also untrue) was offered as a primary justification for the strikes. Regime change was and then was not offered as a reason for the war. It was revealed and then denied that Israel was one of the primary advocates for going to war. The war would be short and then it would be weeks and then it would be months and then it was not a war at all.
The president did not go to Congress to make his case to go to war; when his aides ultimately did end up on the Hill testifying about the war, they also dissembled, misrepresented and distorted facts more often than they reported them accurately.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard asserted that Iran’s nuclear capabilities had been eradicated. Subsequent leaks from the intelligence community she supposedly oversees revealed that is not the case and that Iran is no further from having nuclear weapons than it was last year.
That said, Iran was never as close to having nukes or the ability to deliver them as Trump and his aides have asserted. Further, Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal the Obama Administration helped engineer in 2015 actually led to the accelerated accumulation of fissile material rather than somehow slowing Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon. Indeed, it has been reported that Iran accumulated 11 tons of enriched uranium, almost 1000 pounds of which was highly enriched to near bomb grade, since Trump pulled out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Obama-era agreement.
The lying has extended further, however. While the administration crowed about eliminating not just Iran’s nuclear capability (a lie, as we have established), it also asserted that it had essentially destroyed Iran’s missile and drone production capacity. Once again, however, leaks from within the intelligence community indicated that was not so. Iran reportedly has roughly 40-50 percent of its drone fleet still available to it, and perhaps 60 percent of its missile launchers.
It is widely estimated that the administration’s assertion that the war to date has cost “only” $25 billion is not just wrong but off by a factor of at least two and perhaps more than that.
Other reporting has suggested that the administration has under-reported the number and nature of casualties sustained by U.S. forces during the course of the war.
Claims of sweeping victory by Trump and Hegseth have therefore been systematically and regularly discounted or completely discredited. Indeed, none of the administration’s so-called “strategic objectives” for launching the war have been achieved.
What is more, at the same time, lies are compounded by further lies. During a Tuesday press conference, Hegseth asserted that Iran was the aggressor in this war. That, of course, as the world knows, is a bald-faced lie. (This is not to defend Iran’s often brutal, illegal, and sometimes monstrous actions. Indeed, the fact that the administration’s lies have actually made a rogue regime in Tehran seem more credible is itself a big setback for U.S. interests.)
Not only are these serial falsehoods an abrogation of the administration’s responsibility to the American people and a potential boon for our enemies, it has also undermined credibility that has led to further doubts and even conspiracy theories swirling around U.S. actions, as in the case of allegations that the rescue of the U.S. flyer deep within Iran was not, perhaps, what it appeared to be.
What is more, these stories may be just the tip of the iceberg. Journalists with whom I have spoken indicate that more such reports of administration misrepresentation of what’s happening in and around the Iran War are forthcoming. This is not just a sign of reporters doing their jobs well; it is indicative of what seems to be a growing number of sources in the intelligence community and the military who are disturbed enough by the administration’s actions that they are taking the risk of leaking facts that tell the real story of Trump and Hegseth’s clusterf*ckery.
Will these reports and the pattern of deception ultimately have consequences for Hegseth or the military leaders who are abetting his efforts? It is hard to know given the GOP’s current control of Congress. But they should. After all, a similar pattern of lying and cover-ups about the nature and scope of the Vietnam War was the reason the Pentagon Papers hit Washington like such a thunderbolt in 1971. And if elections in the fall give Democrats control of the House and/or the Senate, it is highly likely the investigations that ought to be taking place right now will finally be launched.
