Hegseth lashes out at congressmen critical of the Iran war: "They are the main adversary we face"

WashingtonThe Pentagon chief, Pete Hegseth, appeared before the US Congress this Wednesday for the first time since the Iran war, which is now two months old, began. Hegseth is addressing the House Armed Services Committee to debate the new defense budget presented by the White House, which foresees a 40% increase in military spending for 2027. After deliberately ignoring the Capitol and attacking Tehran on February 28, lawmakers now have an opportunity to settle scores with the executive branch. But the motivation for the meeting is not to conduct a voluntary transparency exercise, but a necessary procedure to recover an arsenal that has been depleted by the campaign in the Middle East.

Hegseth has been on the defensive in response to questions from committee members and has lashed out at voices critical of the conflict. "The main challenge, the main adversary we face at this moment, are the reckless, irresponsible, and defeatist words of Democrats in Congress and some Republicans," he said, after Adam Smith, the committee's ranking Democrat, demanded to know the administration's objectives. In his opening remarks, Smith said that Hegseth's argument for justifying the war is "absurd." "Where is this going? What is the plan to achieve our objectives? We have seen the cost, and the cost is very, very high," the congressman stressed.

The timing of the hearing is particularly delicate because, according to federal law, the president needs explicit authorization from Congress to continue military operations after 60 days. If parliamentary approval has not been received after this period, US forces must be withdrawn. Even so, the White House could still invoke a 30-day extension for national security reasons.

Beyond the legal deadline, many Republican lawmakers were pointing to the two months of war as a turning point where they would reconsider their support. So far, Republican lawmakers have voted against Democratic proposals to limit the president's war powers. But if the White House does not provide explanations now, voting discipline could break down.

The administration has denied that the new plan is influenced by the cost of the war, although once the items are broken down it is quite evident that a large part of the money will be used to buy new Tomahawk missiles and Patriot and THAAD anti-aircraft systems. All of this is weaponry used in the campaign. The latest CSIS analysis already indicated that in the last seven weeks of the war the US military has spent at least 45% of its precision missile arsenal; at least half of its inventory of THAAD missiles, designed to intercept ballistic missiles; and almost 50% of its Patriot air defense interceptor missile arsenal.

In this way, the budget item of 30 billion dollars would also aim to purchase Patriot missiles and THAAD missile systems. Furthermore, the proposal also plans to allocate almost 54 billion dollars to military drones and related technology, as well as 21 billion dollars to weapon systems designed to shoot down enemy drones.

It was foreseeable that these systems would suffer a significant decrease in ammunition stock. In June, when the United States executed the "Midnight Hammer" operation, they fired more than 150 THAADs to protect Israel and other countries in the region where US forces are deployed. This meant using about a quarter of the system's total inventory, which is estimated to have been 630 missiles. In the current campaign, THAAD has been used to shoot down missiles targeting the United Arab Emirates. Each THAAD interceptor costs around 13 million dollars and it could take two or three years to replenish stocks.

The "twelve-day war" of 2025 had already significantly depleted THAAD reserves, and the situation with Patriots was similar after the numerous shipments to Ukraine. In fact, the state of the army's arsenal was one of the reasons why the Chief of Staff, Dan Caine, advised Trump against going to war with Iran.