Pete Hegseth denies Iran war is a ‘quagmire’ as estimated US cost so far hits $25bn

Pete Hegseth has denied that the US-Israel war on Iran is “a quagmire” and claimed critics of the operation posed a greater threat to the US than Iran itself, as he came under pressure to set out Washington’s strategy for the conflict. Appearing before the House armed services committee alongside Gen Dan Caine, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, the US defense secretary asked lawmakers to approve a $1.5tn budget in military spending – and then described some of them as “the biggest challenge” to the war effort. “The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he declared. These remarks did not appear in prepared written statement submitted to the committee. Two months into a conflict that Donald Trump predicted would last four to six weeks, Hegseth invoked the US’s long and painful deployments in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan – wars he previously criticized bitterly – as a benchmark for endurance. The war against Iran, he said, was “an existential fight for the safety of the American people”, and the administration was “proud of this undertaking”. Protesters’ chants rang from the hallways, calling Hegseth and Caine war criminals. Many members of the public struggled to be admitted into the hearing. Trump posted an AI-generated image of himself holding a weapon amid explosions with the caption “NO MORE MR. …