(AFP) – US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will face tough questions from lawmakers about the Iran war on Wednesday during his first testimony to Congress since the start of the conflict. Hegseth’s appearance before the House Armed Services Committee — for a hearing on President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion defense budget request — comes with the war still unresolved and the economic fallout from it continuing around the globe.
Lawmakers from both parties have previously expressed dissatisfaction with the information provided in classified briefings on the war, setting up a potentially fiery public hearing in which top US military officer General Dan Caine is also set to testify. “Finally, Secretary Hegseth will come before the House Armed Services Committee this week. It is time to answer for this war of choice,” Representative Maggie Goodlander, a Democratic member of the committee, said in a post on X.
Trump and his administration have yet to publicly provide a plan for winding down the war, which has led Iran to close the vital Strait of Hormuz waterway, sending oil prices skyrocketing. Washington hit back with a blockade of Iran’s ports, and now has three aircraft carriers deployed in the Middle East for the first time in more than 20 years.
– ‘Misled the public’ – Trump has indefinitely extended what was initially a two-week ceasefire, but negotiations have yet to yield a breakthrough. House Democrats introduced six articles of impeachment against Hegseth earlier this month, accusing him of “high crimes and misdemeanors” including waging war on Iran without congressional approval.
More than a dozen Democrats also sent a letter to Hegseth last week demanding a “formal, immediate investigation” into the deaths of six US troops in Kuwait on March 1, saying the Pentagon chief failed to protect American forces and then “misled the public about the circumstances of the attack.” A total of 13 American troops have been killed in the conflict — six in the Iranian attack in Kuwait, one in another attack in Saudi Arabia, and six in a plane crash in Iraq — while 400 have been wounded.
In addition to the Iran war, Hegseth may face questions about repeated shakeups of senior Pentagon personnel since Trump returned to office last year. The Pentagon announced last week that Navy Secretary John Phelan was leaving office “immediately,” a move that followed the removal of top US Army officer General Randy George earlier in April.
Lawmakers may also raise Hegseth’s conflict with artificial intelligence firm Anthropic, which refused to allow its AI models to be used for mass surveillance of civilians or in fully autonomous lethal military operations.
© 2024 AFP
