At a press conference last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took a moment to push back against reporting that he disagreed with. The beleaguered Pentagon chief said he’s heard commentary that the war in Iran “might be expanding” beyond Iranian borders.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said.
On Tuesday, the former Fox News host tried to re-emphasize the same argument.
“It’s worth underscoring, I see in the media banners that say, ‘War expanding,’ or ‘War spreading,” Hegseth said. “It’s actually the opposite. It’s actually quite contained.”
Perhaps he was referring to some other war?
On the first day of the military offensive, the conflict involved three countries: The United States, Israel and Iran. But it wasn’t long before that list grew. By the sixth day of the war, The Washington Post noted that the violence had “touched 12 countries across the Middle East.”
Soon after, an Iranian drone strike hit Bahrain, injuring 32 people, and the day after that, the United Arab Emirates felt the need to shut down one of the larger oil refineries in the world in response to an Iranian strike. The developments coincided with related violence spreading to Iraq and Lebanon, where a conflict with Israel has intensified.
What’s more, other countries around the world have been economically impacted by the war, widening the conflict beyond the Middle East.
None of this is a secret. It’s been well documented and covered in detail, here and abroad.
All of which leaves us with a few simple questions for Hegseth: Is he (a) unaware of the developments that make clear just how quickly and aggressively the war is expanding; (b) trying to deceive the public about the consequences of a war the administration launched for reasons it’s struggled to explain; or (c) confused about what “expanding” and “spreading” mean?
