STORY: :: Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth defends the Iran war and says it is not a quagmire
:: April 29, 2026
"I hope you appreciate how reckless it is. When I said reckless, feckless and defeatist, the congressional Democrats at the beginning that came after watching you say the same thing on CNN this morning, a 'quagmire.' My generation served in a quagmire in Iraq and Afghanistan. Years and years of nebulous missions and utopian nation building that led us to nothing. What we have right now, the way you stain the troops, when you tell them two months in, two months in, congressman, you should know better. Shame on you. Calling this a quagmire. Two months in the effort, what they've undertaken, what they've succeeded, the success on the battlefield, to create strategic opportunities, the courage of a president to confront a nuclear Iran. And you call it a quagmire, handing propaganda to our enemies? Shame on you for that statement. And statements like that are reckless to our troops. Don't say I support the troops on one hand, and then a two-month mission is a quagmire. That's a false equivalency. Who are you cheering for here? Who are you pulling for? Our troops are doing incredible work. They've done incredible things for the entirety of this mission and achieved incredible battlefield successes. And you sit there and go on TV for your clickbait about quagmires. It undermines the mission. Your hatred for President Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission and the historic stakes that the president is addressing, which the American people support. Iran's been at war with us for 47 years. You want to talk about a forever war? For two months, this president has stared them down. He's going to get a better deal than anyone ever has and ensure that Iran never has a nuclear weapon. I know the American people support that mission, despite your loose talk and words like quagmire."
Hegseth was testifying before Congress for the first time since the U.S. and Israel launched a war against Iran on February 28 that has led to a surge in gasoline prices.
Trump's popularity has taken a pounding since the conflict began, and just 34% of Americans approve of the U.S. conflict with Iran, down from 36% in mid-April and 38% in mid-March, the Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Democrats peppered Hegseth with questions about the open-ended conflict, with Rep. John Garamendi of California calling it a "quagmire" and "political and economic disaster at every level."
