Where did the money go?’ US senators grill Pete Hegseth as cost of Iran war reaches ₹3.62 trillion | Today’s news
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday that the cost of the US war with Iran had climbed to $37.5 billion, an increase of $8.5 billion from the nearly $29 billion he reported in May.
“The estimate we have to date is $37.5 billion,” Hegseth said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
Hegseth and General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, further defended the request for $67 billion in additional Pentagon funding, telling Congress that the funding was “urgent” and “necessary” to cover the Pentagon’s costs of the Iran war through the end of September.
“Without these funds, we face critical shortfalls,” Hegseth told the Senate panel, warning that it would jeopardize the Defense Department’s ability “to pay our personnel, rapidly replenish equipment and ammunition, and maintain vital operations without interruption.”
It was the first sustained public questioning of a defense secretary since a brief truce collapsed and war reignited. Here’s how the Senate panel challenged Hegseth.
What has the war achieved so far?
Patty Murray, the committee’s top Democrat, asked Hegseth to explain what the war has accomplished so far. She accused the administration of changing the reasons for the conflict every week and warned that it could turn into “another eternal war”.
“Every few days we hear a different justification for this war,” Murray said in her opening remarks, as reported by The Guardian. She argued that the justification for war has shifted from anticipating threats that “didn’t exist” to regime change, then to dismantling Iran’s nuclear program and navy, and now, she said, to simply reopening the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway that was “wide open, free before this war started.”
“And here we are, five months later,” she continued. “The strait is closed. The truce didn’t just fall apart – this war is now spiraling out of control again.”
Where did the unspent money go?
Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen disputed Hegseth’s assessment, noting that the Defense Department still has $75 billion in unused funds.
“Why are you asking the American people to absorb the costs of a war they do not support, instead of asking for a devolution of unspent reconciliation funds?”
Hegseth said the unspent money was “otherwise allocated” to President Donald Trump’s other priorities, such as “A Gold Dome for America and investments in hypersonics and other munitions.”
The requested funds do not include the cost of rebuilding US military bases in the Middle East.
What would happen if the US left Hormuz?
Lawmakers expressed frustration as they pressed for details on the Trump administration’s strategy to win the war in the Middle East.
Demands for transparency crossed party lines, with Republican Senator John Kennedy saying, “We need some tough answers and some straight talking” when asked what would happen if the US just left the Strait of Hormuz.
Hegseth and Caine did not offer details on whether Iran would impose fees on ships seeking passage.
