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Last week, the Pentagon quietly reduced the death toll in the war with Iran from 18 to 14. This was not happy news about previous mistakes but a graphic accounting trick. Although the Defense Department initially blamed the data issue, military sources he told it New York Times that the Trump administration had removed four servicemen killed recently from its count “because their deaths occurred after President Trump announced a cease-fire in April.”
Yesterday, the government website which tracks US military casualties was updated again, this time including the four men, but placing them in a new category: “Casualties of overseas operations as of July 7, 2026” is now listed alongside Operation Epic Fury – the military code name for the Iran war. July 7 was the day the administration resumed strikes against Iran, acknowledging that the April ceasefire had failed. What’s going on here is more than just an effort to minimize the war’s death toll: The administration is trying to cover up the war and end up covering up the deaths of American servicemen along the way.
Under the War Powers Resolution of 1973, the president can take military action but must notify Congress. Then, within 60 days, the president must end the conflict, get congressional approval, or ask for a 30-day extension. In April, when the United States reached a very weak ceasefire agreement with Iran, the administrationsupported by Republican leaders in Congress-claimed that the war was over, and therefore that no congressional action was needed or justified.
But the war was clearly not over. The back-and-forth between Israel, Hezbollah, Iran, and the United States continued for several weeks, resulting in tortured semantic debates about the definition of ceasefireuntil Trump finally announced a cease-fire earlier this month. But instead of admitting that this is a return to the original conflict, the White House now says it’s a completely different conflict—which means that Congress won’t have any responsibility until early September, 60 days from July 10, the day the White House officially announced the conflict. Trump claims to follow the letter of the War Powers Declaration while mocking its spirit.
The concern of the administration is a little strange, given its indifference to many other laws, but the White House is facing an unhappy public anger and growing anger among Republicans in Congress, which never approved the conflict with Iran. Last week, the GOP-majority Congress passed a resolution calling for an end to the war; Four Republicans joined the Democrats. The Senate passed a same measure last month. Neither is necessary, but they reflect the fear of some Republicans that the war will bring them down in the midterm elections.
Trump’s comments about Americans killed in war have been as gut-wrenching as one might expect. In a Social reality Last Tuesday, the president listed the number of deaths from several more recent conflicts, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Vietnam, and Korea, as well as from the war with Iran, in what many observers saw as an attempt to minimize the human cost. (Ignoring a later Pentagon correction, he cited 18 deaths.) Also last week, before traveling to Dover Air Force Base for a ceremony where the bodies of slain soldiers were brought home, Trump tried to expose the dead, claiming they had approved (current) the logic of war. “They all said very strongly, ‘We cannot allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,'” Trump said. This leads to a terrible paradox: Trump insists that these servicemen died supporting the goals of Operation Epic Fury, but, according to his administration, when they were killed, Operation Epic Fury was already over.
During his two terms, Trump has repeatedly treated the military as a political pivot and shown little respect for those killed or wounded in battle. Like Atlanticof editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, to be reported in 2020Trump called Americans who died in the war “exploiters” and “losers,” and avoided visiting the graves of men killed in World War I. public strife and the widow of a soldier killed in Niger, who, following a phone conversation with the president, said that Trump had forgotten her husband’s name and said that the man who was killed “knew what he was getting into when he signed up.” (Trump, for his part, called his account fictitious.)
Previous presidents have also tried to hide war deaths from the public. From 1991 to 2009, the media was banned from photographing the Dover wreck. This was a liability for the George W. Bush administration after an activist obtained the photos through a public records request, prompting questions about whether the White House was keeping images of the destruction from the public to maintain support for the war. Violence was a common example of “Streisand effect,” in which someone brings attention to a story by trying to shut it down.
The Trump administration is now in the same situation. The decrease in the number of deaths brought more attention to the 18 Americans who were killed in the war. When the Pentagon released the declassified data again, it also revealed that the number of Americans injured is now more than 600, up from 482 reported last week. according to CNN. The administration wanted to hide the war with Iran; instead it showed painful and growing costs.
Related:
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Today’s news
- President Trump he said he stopped US military attacks against Iran to give the peace talks another chance, but he warned that the strikes will start again if the talks do not reach an agreement.
- Senator Mitch McConnell said he is He is not yet ready to return to the Senate after being hospitalized last month; he has missed 38 votes in the chamber and did not give a timetable for returning to work.
- Extreme heat is expected to exacerbate already record-breaking wildfires in France and Spain this week. The fire has burned about 287,000 acres in France and 378,000 acres in Spain. and forced to move.
Dispatches
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Evening Read
An Odyssey in Our Own Time
By Peter Wehner
“A battle. A man. A ruse. A ruse to break the walls of Troy. And burn it—shout—down.” Christopher Nolan’s name Odyssey opens in the great hall of Ithaca, with the bard singing a song about the trickery of Odysseus, the legendary hero, to the men who have conquered his house – to convict his wife, to frighten his son – while he is away. A feast has been turned into a desecration.
The law that these people broke was the most sacred in the ancient world: “Xenia,” the law of hospitality.” The stranger at the door stood under the personal protection of Zeus, the supreme god and protector of strangers.” The relationship between the guest and the host was not only polite, but a covenant that enabled mutual trust between the guests.
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Reflection. When does middle age actually begin? Julie Beck trying to attach some numbers for the poor phase of life.
Take a look. Christopher Nolan’s Striker Odyssey (in theaters now) appears sometimes more biblical than HomericLuis Parrales writes.
Rafaela Jinich contributed to this magazine.
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