Nothing to See Here, Folks

Mr. Hennigan writes about national security for Opinion.

This article was updated to reflect new death tolls.

For a guy who calls himself the secretary of war, Pete Hegseth sure is defensive.

On Monday morning, in the first public event by a Trump administration official since the U.S. attacks on Iran began two days earlier, Mr. Hegseth was asked what the mission was all about and whether the American people could expect another protracted, blood-soaked war in the Middle East.

“Did you not hear my remarks?” he snapped. “We’re ensuring the mission gets accomplished. But we are very cleareyed, as the president has been, unlike other presidents, about the foolish policies in the past that recklessly pulled us into things that were not tethered to actual, clear objectives.”

That kind of aggressive non-answer has come to define Mr. Hegseth’s engagements with journalists. Six American service members were killed in an Iranian attack over the weekend, and three fighter jets were shot down in “an apparent friendly fire incident” by Kuwaiti forces. And yet outside of short military news releases, the Trump administration has been uncharacteristically quiet about the details of the battle — and why we’re fighting it.

During a Medal of Honor ceremony at the White House, President Trump spoke briefly about Iran and indicated that the U.S.-Israeli military campaign’s timeline was open-ended. “Whatever the time is, it’s OK, whatever it takes,” he said. “Right from the beginning we projected four to five weeks, but we have the capability to go far longer than that. We’ll do it.”

Mr. Trump took no questions from reporters.

The need for security and secrecy is crucial when the lives of America’s service members hang in the balance. The Trump administration’s near silence around the new war in Iran goes beyond such caution. The American public has received too little information to effectively judge the goals and objectives of the largest U.S. military operation in the Middle East in a generation, whatever they turn out to be.

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W.J. Hennigan writes about national security, foreign policy and conflict for the Opinion section.

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