Trump’s Clandestine War
What he doesn’t want you to know
Never have so many of your tax dollars been spent on a war we know so little about. Pete Hegseth, the former Fox News weekend anchor who’s now in charge of the Department of Defense, has decided no news is good news.
Little information, few videos or photos, no pool reports, no reporters embedded with the troops. Next to nothing, really, in the way of reliable, verifiable information. I remember back to World War II when CBS News correspondents and others reported from the front lines. In this war, we haven’t seen a front line and learned of Iranian attacks on U.S. installations mostly from the Iranians.
Tehran posts evidence of the damage inflicted on American bases throughout the Middle East — quite the feat for an enemy that has supposedly been decimated, decapitated, obliterated or whatever deceptive adjective the Trump administration chooses.
The rare photo above, showing damage inflicted on an American base by Iranian rockets, was leaked and verified by The New York Times.
These realities of U.S. censorship and propaganda should make every American pause and think deeply — other than a few unverifiable hand-out pictures of airstrikes, practically the only photographic evidence we’ve seen of the war is of our brave service members arriving home in flag-draped coffins.
The only time we hear from Hegseth is when he wants more money to spend on his clandestine war. It’s not the mainstream press asking those in control for accountability — they’ve long since been banished from the Pentagon — it’s members of Congress, who fund the military. They’re in the dark too.
The “little skirmish” with Iran, as the president called it this week, is costing a fortune, with no end in sight.
Donald Trump doesn’t want to control the Iran war narrative; he wants none to exist — at least not one that is anything other than a booster club.
While the president is happy to tell you the war is over — over and over again — that Iran’s “military is totally gone,” that Iranian assets have been “totally obliterated,” that “we control the strait. They don’t control anything,” it’s total fiction. After five months, Iran controls the strait and the narrative.
The tension between taxpayers’ right to know how their money is being spent and the Defense Department’s need for “operational security” is a problem as old as warfare. But even tight-lipped previous administrations held regular press conferences. The Pentagon hasn’t had one since May 5.
What the public does get is a game of disinformation hot potato. The Pentagon refuses to say anything and refers the media to the U.S. Central Command, which then doles out light-on-facts social media posts.
After launching its 12th day of air attacks against Iran, following the failure of the ceasefire, CentCom posted this nothingburger: “The mission will continue to further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters.”
Fortunately, several news organizations aren’t taking the dribble of information lying down. Using video footage, satellite imagery (some provided by Iran), and anonymous sources, The Times has pieced together what happened at the Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on July 17.
The only reason The Times even knew to investigate the attack was because three U.S. troops were killed. By law, the government must disclose when a service member is killed in action. In this case, the Pentagon offered the barest of information.
The Times found that Iran damaged or destroyed at least 20 sites, including radar systems, drone shelters, barracks, hangars, and work areas. Besides the three deaths, dozens were injured, some badly enough to be evacuated to the U.S. military hospital in Germany.
With the help of anonymous sources and flight tracking data, The Wall Street Journal is reporting that more troops are heading to the Middle East, along with medics and weapons. These preparations suggest that Trump may be considering an escalation. Sending ground troops into combat is an option.
Sources who spoke with The Washington Post “cautioned that the expansion of U.S. operations will be limited by dwindling stockpiles of air defense and long-range munitions and constraints on the ability to surge more troops and aircraft into the area because of battle damage.”
The increasingly dangerous lack of information about what has happened and what the U.S. is planning came to a head this week. Hegseth went to Capitol Hill to ask for more money to continue fighting a war Congress did not authorize. The House passed a war powers resolution Thursday directing the president to end it. A similar measure in the Senate stalled when only one Republican, Susan Collins (R-ME), voted for it. Two other Republicans didn’t vote.
Hegseth made his shaky case before the Senate Appropriations Committee with both Democrats and Republicans demanding more information. “We need straight answers,” Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) told Hegseth.
When asked how much the war has cost so far, Hegseth told the committee $37.5 billion. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) called that estimate “suspiciously low.” Perhaps because Hegseth then asked for an emergency supplement of more than $80 billion, on top of the $1.5 trillion requested for the 2027 military budget, which itself is a 42% increase over 2026. The full Senate vote has not yet been scheduled.
Trump and his proxy Hegseth have failed to explain to Congress and the American people how they spent so much money or how the war with Iran has used up the U.S. military’s stockpile of costly weapons and supplies.
The Pentagon and the press have had a rocky relationship since Hegseth was sworn in as the Secretary of Defense in January 2025. One of his first official acts was to push legacy media out of their seats at the Pentagon and replace them with far-right outlets like Breitbart.
In May, he barred reporters from moving freely around the Pentagon. By September, things escalated when a memo went to all Pentagon journalists saying they can only report stories “approved for public release by an appropriate authorizing official, even if it is unclassified.” Noncompliance would result in the forfeiture of their credentials.
Then things got ugly. In October, most of the Pentagon press corps, including the Fox reporter, left the building in protest, after Hegseth demanded they sign a highly irregular and restrictive contract to continue covering the Defense Department. Two months later, The Times sued over the policy. While a judge ruled in the paper’s favor in March, reporters’ movements inside the Pentagon are still severely restricted.
Hegseth’s determination to thwart reporters has not had his hoped-for results: a news blackout. Fortunately, there are still people within the Pentagon who believe the public has a right to know what is happening and are willing to speak with journalists. This, of course, has angered an already paranoid Hegseth. In response, he’s become obsessed with ferreting out leaks.
He announced the creation of a “joint task force to IDENTIFY AND PROSECUTE LEAKERS,” on social media earlier this month. Hegseth has gone so far as to administer polygraph tests to DOD personnel to root out people who speak with the press.
CNN’s Brian Stelter reports on the media. “‘The chilling atmosphere has gotten worse since [Hegseth] launched his task force with DOJ,’ a military reporter told me. ‘Sources feel like they’ll be prosecuted for simply speaking with journalists,’” Stelter wrote.
Even with the specter of lie detector tests and prosecution, patriots within the Pentagon understand the importance of transparency. Remarkably, they’re all we’ve got in a war where an estimated 50,000 members of the U.S. military are in the Middle East, ready to attack.
No one is asking to disclose battle plans or strategy, but what’s the endgame? Or, is there no plan? That’s the more likely scenario from a delusional president who is playing an expensive and deadly game of chicken in one of the most dangerous parts of the world.
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Dan
Thank you Dan. We can always count on you to tell the truth. What a ghastly mess we are in. Fog of war takes on new meaning with this bunch.💔🇺🇸
Thanks Dan for explaining so well. Hegseth is a joke….a bad one and a sick one. Not a guy walks into a bar joke.
This is a war with no end in sight. Hardly a skirmish and not even a military action. So sad we have come to this. And the planet idiot saying we’ve only lost a few lives vs. 200,000 in Vietnam. Thank you Mr. Bone Spurs.