War Secretary Pete Hegseth voiced his displeasure with a Democratic congressman’s comment that the war in Iran was a “quagmire,” saying it harmed the U.S. military.
While testifying in front of the House Armed Services Committee, Hegseth turned his wrath against Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), who had earlier suggested that the war in Iran had turned into a “quagmire.”
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“I hope you appreciate how reckless it is … feckless and defeatist of congressional Democrats,” to call the war a “quagmire,” Hegseth said, contrasting it with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
“My generation served in Iraq and Afghanistan, years and years of new, nebulous missions and utopian nation building that led us to nothing … The way you stain the troops when you tell them, two months in … you should know better. Shame on you calling this a quagmire two months in the effort,” he added.
By calling the war a quagmire, Hegseth argued that congressional Democrats were “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 equivalation. Who are you cheering for here? Who are you pulling for?” he said.
Democrats calling the war a quagmire was intended for “clickbait,” Hegseth said, and the perspective proved that their “hatred for President Trump blinds you to the truth of the success of this mission.”
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He also argued that Iran has already been at war with the United States since the Islamic Revolution and U.S. Embassy hostage crisis in 1979.
“I know the American people support that mission, despite your loose talk and words like ‘quagmire,'” Hegseth concluded.
