{"id":125050,"date":"2026-04-30T10:55:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T05:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?p=125050"},"modified":"2026-04-30T10:55:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T05:55:32","slug":"pentagon-chief-spars-with-lawmakers-over-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon chief spars with lawmakers over Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)- US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly clashed with Democratic lawmakers over the Iran conflict on Wednesday, in his first testimony to Congress since President Donald Trump launched the war more than two months ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Appearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Heg\u00adseth quickly struck a combative tone, saying in his opening remarks that the main challenge at this point is the \u201cdefeatist words of Democrats and some Republicans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Representative Adam Smith \u2014 the committee\u2019s top Democrat \u2014 took aim at the regional fallout from the war and its toll on both US troops as well as civilians, saying he wanted answers on where the conflict is going and \u201cthe plan to achieve our objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He later asked Hegseth how the \u201clethal, kinetic action\u201d of the war could be turned into an improvement when it comes to Iran\u2019s nuclear program, which Washington is seeking to eliminate. Hegseth responded by taking aim at the \u201cvery bad\u201d nuclear agreement that Trump scrapped during his first term in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>John Garamendi, another Democrat, accused Hegseth of \u201clying to the American public about this war from day one\u201d describing what is happening in the Middle East as a \u201cgeopolitical calamity, a strategic blunder, resulting in worldwide economic crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cDuring the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/live\/iran-israel-war\">60 days of Trump\u2019s Iran war<\/a>, critical munitions have been expended at an alarming rate, depleting magazine levels below what is thought necessary to hold China at bay,\u201d said Garamendi, also describing the conflict as a \u201cquagmire.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hegseth pushed back, asking Garamendi \u201cwho are you cheering for here?\u201d and saying that calling the war a quagmire was \u201chanding propaganda to our enemies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Democratic Representative Seth Moulton asked Hegseth if he advised Trump to attack Iran \u2014 a question Hegseth declined to answer, though he later said he thought doing so was \u201ca good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Asked by Moulton if he had considered the risk of Iran closing the vital Strait of Hormuz if it was attacked, Hegseth said the Pentagon \u201clooked at all aspects of this risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hegseth was also pressed on the cost of the conflict, which he said was estimated at less than $25 billion so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Pentagon chief then asked the committee: \u201cWhat is it worth to ensure that Iran never gets a nuclear weapon?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WASHINGTON(National Times)- US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly clashed with Democratic lawmakers over the Iran conflict on Wednesday, in his first testimony to Congress since President Donald Trump launched the war more than two months ago. Appearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Heg\u00adseth quickly struck a combative tone, saying in his opening remarks that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-125050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","entry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pentagon chief spars with lawmakers over Iran war - Nation<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pentagon chief spars with lawmakers over Iran war - Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"WASHINGTON(National Times)- US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly clashed with Democratic lawmakers over the Iran conflict on Wednesday, in his first testimony to Congress since President Donald Trump launched the war more than two months ago. Appearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Heg\u00adseth quickly struck a combative tone, saying in his opening remarks that [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nation\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-04-30T05:55:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-72.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"670\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"370\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"humza Jahangir\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/\",\"name\":\"Pentagon chief spars with lawmakers over Iran war - Nation\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-72.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-04-30T05:55:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-72.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-670x370-72.png\",\"width\":670,\"height\":370},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pentagon chief spars with lawmakers over Iran war\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/\",\"name\":\"Nation\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/27efa35fa76e99f3ad7e7397d7332c16\",\"name\":\"humza Jahangir\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/43feedd99bd6a90080d1621b7e6604364acb673ee979d3ffe5075557c14c68b9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"humza Jahangir\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/author\/humza\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pentagon chief spars with lawmakers over Iran war - Nation","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/nationaltimes.pk\/eng\/2026\/125050\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pentagon chief spars with lawmakers over Iran war - Nation","og_description":"WASHINGTON(National Times)- US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth repeatedly clashed with Democratic lawmakers over the Iran conflict on Wednesday, in his first testimony to Congress since President Donald Trump launched the war more than two months ago. 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