Tag: pentagon

Is the Department of War Covering Up the True Extent of US Casualties?

Last Wednesday all the signs were pointing to a desperate action by the Trump administration to launch a ground operation inside Iran ostensibly to seize enriched nuclear material from an Iranian nuclear research facility. The report from the Wall Street Journal noted that US special ops forces were once again being deployed to the region to carry out a raid on a Hardened Deeply Buried Target (aka HDBT). But it also revealed something both disturbing and alarming: the deployment of 150 medics. According to the WSJ:

The U.S. is surging forces, medics and weaponry to the Middle East to give President Trump more muscular military options as he considers expanding the conflict against Iran, according to people familiar with the matter.

In the past week, special-operations forces have deployed to the region from their U.S. bases, according to flight-tracking data and U.S. officials. Squadrons of jet fighters have been staged across the Middle East, and bomber aircraft at bases in the U.S. and U.K. are on high alert to ramp up operations, according to one of the officials.

Additionally, more than 150 medics have arrived at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany in recent days, another official said. The hospital is the primary location for treating troops injured in combat in the Middle East.

Twenty years ago I participated in the scripting and execution of a Special Ops exercise that simulated the targeting of an underground nuclear target in the Middle East. The actual location of the field exercise was in the desert of Nevada, northeast of Las Vegas. At the conclusion of that exercise there was a Hot Wash, i.e., a review of lessons learned from that exercise. What was the primary lesson learned? Don’t do it. Too dangerous because the mission would likely to result in significant casualties and expose the soldiers to unhealthy levels of radiation.

Based on the WSJ report it appears that Trump was on the verge of ordering a real-world version of that exercise. However, this report surfaced on the 23rd of July. Two days later, Trump apparently rescinded the order for the ground op and halted the bombings of the Iranian coast in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.

So far, so good. What most people glossed over was the report that 150 US combat medics were deployed to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany. This was not an ordinary deployment, nor was it in anticipation of possible casualties from an impending military operation… These men and women were deployed to reinforce a badly stretched medical staff at Landstuhl that were trying to cope with dozens of badly wounded US military personnel that had survived the missile strikes on Muwafaq al-Salti airbase in Jordan and two army bases in Kuwait.

Based on the number of C-17 medical flights reported in open source that departed Jordan following the 17 July missile attack on Muwafaq al-Salti airbase and flew to Ramstein airbase in Germany, which is the entry port for the Landstuhl Medical Center, US casualties numbered over 100, perhaps higher. The large number of wounded may have been another factor contributing to President Trump’s decision to halt the bombing one week later.

While there are no direct talks between the US and Iran, Pakistan, along with Qatar, are working intensively as intermediaries in trying to resurrect the MoU. If the MoU is resuscitated it will be because the US met Iran’s demands that Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanon and that the US unfreeze Iranian assets up front, not at some point in the future. I am sure that Bibi Netanyahu will try to persuade Trump to reignite the war and pursue a more intensive bombing campaign as well as some kind of ground operation on Iranian territory.

For now, the bombs and missiles are not falling. I am skeptical that this current hiatus will hold… I sincerely hope that I am wrong. Once Senator Graham is buried on Wednesday, we may see Trump reverse course once again and renew the bombing campaign. Iran, for its part, is holding firm to its demands that the MoU be fully implemented, otherwise Iran is prepared to continue fighting and inflicting more damage on US assets and personnel.

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Getting Away with Murder: Under Trump, the Buck Stops Nowhere

Having burned through billions of dollars and depleted critical munitions stockpiles, the Pentagon is running out of money.

Our money.

According to the Washington Post, the Pentagon is facing an urgent budget shortfall caused largely by the Iran war, with some critical funding accounts expected to run dry within weeks. Training, maintenance and other military priorities are reportedly being squeezed as the government struggles to sustain Trump’s escalating conflict.

Once again, the government is looking to the American people for a taxpayer-funded bailout—this time to the tune of $67 billion.

Nor is the $67 billion emergency infusion the end of it.

Trump’s fiscal year 2027 budget calls for an unprecedented $1.5 trillion in national-defense spending—a staggering increase that would pour still more money into a military apparatus that cannot account honestly for the costs of its current war, maintain its existing priorities, or keep from returning to taxpayers for another bailout.

The problem is not simply how much the war machine consumes. It is how little accountability accompanies that spending.

The government can launch a war, exhaust military resources, conceal its full costs, and return to Congress for billions more without anyone responsible being required to admit error, change course, or answer for the lives lost.

That is becoming a familiar pattern under Donald Trump.

He makes the decisions—others absorb the consequences.

He launches the war—the troops make the sacrifices, and taxpayers inherit the bill.

The Iran war is not merely another example of government waste, although the cost is already staggering. The war has already cost an estimated $80 to $100 billion, not counting its long-term economic impact, future veteran expenses, or the cost of repairing damaged military bases. Analysts estimate that the broader toll on American households could eventually reach as much as $1,000 per household.

Yet the true cost cannot be measured in dollars alone.

American service members are dying in a war Trump started without meaningful congressional authorization, without a credible plan for ending it, and without an honest accounting of what it will cost.

The Pentagon is draining resources from training, maintenance and weapons programs to keep the conflict going. Congress is being asked to supply billions more. And the American people—already struggling under the weight of debt, inflation and economic uncertainty—are expected to pay without question.

This is government without accountability.

When Trump’s decisions cost American lives, deplete military stockpiles and burn through billions of taxpayer dollars, the bill never finds its way to him. It finds its way to us, while Trump remains conspicuously insulated from the human and financial consequences of his own decisions.

That insulation from consequence is matched by a swaggering display of bluster and bravado that passes for leadership within the Trump administration.

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Pentagon asked for ‘gain of function’ research proposals years before COVID-19 pandemic, top virologist tells Congress

A War Department program requested proposals for so-called “gain of function” experiments that could make viruses more infectious nearly two full years before the COVID-19 pandemic began, a top US virologist told Congress earlier this year.

Dr. Ralph Baric, a prominent coronavirus researcher, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee in a closed-door interview April 10 that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had solicited proposals in January 2018 to understand “what drives cross-species jumping” in viruses.

“Now, if you want to know, down to the nucleotide level, what drives a cross-species jumping event, you are talking gain-of-function experiments,” Baric told committee staffers, according to an interview transcript obtained by The Post.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Paul.) is making Baric’s full testimony available at a Reading Room webpage that is dedicated to providing Americans full transparency about the decisions surrounding viral research leading up to the global outbreak.

US public health officials like former National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) Director Dr. Anthony Fauci have maintained that the research — which can involve the enhancement of potential pandemic pathogens — is safe and useful for developing vaccines or other drugs to fight emerging viruses.

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Pentagon concealed dozens of casualties from Iranian strikes in Jordan: Report

The Pentagon did not disclose dozens of injuries to US service personnel resulting from a barrage of Iranian ballistic missile strikes on US bases in Jordan last week, the New York Times (NYT) reported on 20 July.

CBS News reported on Friday that two US soldiers and one service member were missing following Iranian strikes on the Muwaffaq Salti Base in Jordan. 

Iran carried out three additional strikes against US forces in Jordan the same week.

“Those attacks injured dozens of US service members and damaged several helicopters,” NYT wrote, citing US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“But the Pentagon did not disclose the earlier strikes, nor the casualties and damage they inflicted,” the paper added.

Throughout the war launched by US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the Islamic Republic in February, the Pentagon has stated that “operational security” takes precedence over notifying the US public about developments in the war, including casualties to soldiers.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) is not required to release information about injured service members, a US military official said in response to the Iranian attacks last week.

Another US official said that doing so would help Iran more accurately target US soldiers in the region with its ballistic missiles and drones.

CENTCOM has also stopped announcing how many sites in Iran it hits each day for the same reason. The Pentagon has not given a major briefing on the war since May, providing little information about the US strategy.

US officials have also refused to comment on reports that the military is running low on missile interceptors, or how Iran continues to launch ballistic missiles after Trump declared Iran’s missile capabilities had been destroyed earlier in the war.

On 1 April, The Intercept reported that Washington was engaged in a “casualty cover-up,” saying that nearly 750 US soldiers had been injured or killed since October 2023 – a number far higher than US officials had admitted.

A total of 17 US service members have been killed and 400 injured in the war on Iran, according to the Pentagon’s official numbers. However, the number of injured has not been updated in recent weeks.

The two killed in Jordan were identified as 1st Lt. Tyler James Feehan, 25, from Hawaii, and Pvt. Isabella Gonzales, 19, from Texas.

In response to the soldiers’ deaths, President Trump said the troops died “in service of our country,” while claiming that the goal of the war is “never allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”

Elsewhere, Trump has stated that the US is fighting the war for its Gulf allies. Other reports indicate Trump launched the war under pressure from Israel.

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REPORT: Pentagon Draws Up Plans for Possible Military Action Against Communist Cuba

Senior Pentagon officials are reviewing military options for Cuba as the Trump administration intensifies pressure on Havana’s communist government.

According to CBS News, the planning reportedly includes a possible Army-led air assault involving thousands of U.S. troops from the 101st Airborne Division.

Officials stressed that no operation has been approved and that the discussions remain at the contingency-planning stage.

The review follows months of escalating pressure on the communist regime.

President Trump restored Cuba’s designation as a state sponsor of terrorism after returning to office, expanded restrictions on travel and financial transactions, and targeted the military-controlled conglomerate GAESA, which dominates much of the island’s hard-currency economy.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has pushed for a negotiated transition to a reform-minded government, but talks have stalled.

In a recent statement, Rubio said Cuba’s ruling elite continues to maintain “total control” while clinging to a “morally bankrupt Marxist ideology.”

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Report: Trump Sons Build Defense Portfolio as Pentagon Billions Flow

President Donald Trump’s sons have built a broad portfolio of defense technology investments as their father’s administration directs more money toward drones, robotics, artificial intelligence, and other new weapons systems.

Funds linked to Donald Trump, Jr. and Eric Trump have invested in at least 15 companies seeking business from the Pentagon and other federal agencies, according to a Washington Post analysis. Most of the investments came after Trump won reelection.

Since the sons invested, says the report,

The companies have collectively generated at least $3.2 billion in direct government business since the sons invested and an additional $3.1 billion in future contract options. Some have gained coveted spots on shortlists of preapproved contractors that can bid exclusively on up to nearly $200 billion in future work.

The explosion of the family’s financial wealth does not stop with the sons. A disclosure filed in 2026 showed that Trump himself reported at least $2.2 billion in income for 2025, up from about $600 million the previous year. That works out to roughly $6 million per day. His accounts also made thousands of securities trades across the economy, including investments in defense companies and other industries heavily regulated by, or dependent on, federal policy.

The Money Trail

The Trump sons’ investments reportedly flow mainly through two firms.

Donald Trump, Jr. joined venture-capital firm 1789 Capital as a partner within days of his father’s 2024 election victory. The firm promotes what its partners call “patriotic capitalism.” It invested in 11 of the 15 defense, robotics, and AI companies identified by The Post.

Meanwhile, Eric Trump has invested primarily through American Ventures. The firm operates through Dominari Holdings, a small investment bank based in Trump Tower. Eric Trump told the outlet that he was “one of several passive investors.”

Neither brother holds a government position. Neither had notable experience in defense technology before the investment drive began. Both remain executive vice presidents of the Trump Organization.

The Companies

The companies that the Trump-linked firms invested in range from industry giants to little-known startups.

Elon Musk’s SpaceX accounted for about $2.1 billion in direct federal business after the investment and another $1.2 billion in potential commitments, according to The Post. Musk was also Trump’s largest financial backer in 2024. He spent nearly $300 million supporting Trump and other Republicans.

SpaceX was already deeply dependent on Washington. As of February 2025, it reportedly held about $22 billion in government contracts, including roughly $15 billion from NASA.

Its military role has since expanded sharply. This May, SpaceX won a $4.16 billion Space Force contract for satellites designed to track and target airborne threats. Days earlier, it secured another $2.29 billion to build a military satellite communications network.

Those systems could form important parts of Trump’s controversial Golden Dome missile shield. SpaceX was previously identified as a leading contender for the program, alongside Anduril and Palantir (all run by Trump’s mega donors).

Anduril ranked second in The Post’s tally. It accounted for about $1 billion in direct government business and another $122.9 million in potential work. The company builds autonomous drones, surveillance systems, missiles, and counter-drone technology.

Together, SpaceX and Anduril accounted for 97 percent of the direct federal money identified by The Post.

The remaining investments covered automated weapons factories, rare earth magnets, quantum computing, humanoid robots, drones, rocket fuel, and targeting software. Hadrian and Vulcan Elements secured the largest potential commitments among the smaller firms. Other companies included Databricks, Foundation Future Industries, Unusual Machines, Firehawk Aerospace, Perplexity AI, PsiQuantum, and Aeon Industrial.

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A Budget of the Pentagon, By the Congress, and For the War Profiteers

The first sentence of Thomas Paine’s classic 1776 essay, Common Sense, urged the American people to challenge the legitimacy of the English Crown, something that had never been challenged before. He wrote:

“Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them a great favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”

Two hundred and fifty years later, time and reason strongly suggest that the U.S. “defense” budget is out of control, unsustainable and absent of accountability.

Only the American people can rein it in.

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Pete Hegseth Announces New Task Force to Identify and Prosecute Leakers 

War Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a new task force to not only identify leakers, but to prosecute them. This is long past due.

This is a problem that has been coming up repeatedly since the first Trump administration. It will continue unless there are serious consequences.

There are simply too many people in Washington who think they are activists and will use this tactic to try to frustrate and disrupt the administration’s plans. They need to know that if they do this, they could end up in jail.

The Hill reports:

Hegseth announces joint task force to identify and prosecute leakers

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday that the Pentagon and the Justice Department (DOJ) have created a joint task force to identify and prosecute leakers as part of the department’s effort to clamp down on disclosure of sensitive information.

Hegseth said the Defense Department’s Office of General Counsel (OGC) will be able to request and receive all information, support and records across the Pentagon regarding news media leak investigations.

The Defense secretary said all of the department’s components and personnel will “prioritize” these requests and that any taskings issued by the OGC under the authority have to receive a “full and complete” response within two days of the requests being submitted.

“Leaked information risks lives. These new tools and processes will greatly assist us in protecting our joint force. The security of our nation cannot be a bargaining chip for those who seek momentary headlines,” Hegseth said in a roughly two-and-a-half-minute video which was posted on social platform X. “Access to confidential and secret information is a sacred trust, and those who betray that trust will be met with the full force of the law.”

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Key Revelations From 4th Batch Of Pentagon UFO Files

The Pentagon released its fourth new batch of UFO files on July 10, including a transcript from a conference that included scientists who worked on the Manhattan Project.

This release of information on UFOs, which the government refers to as unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP), has a total of 40 files, including 19 videos, 14 documents, four audio clips, and three images.

The mix of partially unredacted files and historical documents is sourced from multiple agencies, including the CIA, FBI, Pentagon, NASA, and the Department of Energy.

The Pentagon said it is not the last release of UFO files in relation to President Donald Trump’s executive order, according to a statement from chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.

High-Speed ‘Rectangle’

In one report, five U.S. military-affiliated personnel witnessed a strange object over the eastern United States in 2019.

“I noticed an object with flight characteristics unlike anything I had seen in my 28 years of performing [REDACTED] for the [Army] and Navy. A small object was below us and appeared to be traveling in a straight line opposite our direction at high speed,” the observer wrote.

“I tracked it for ~10-15 seconds before we turned on the recorder to provide the attached video. When I zoomed in to try and achieve more resolution, the object’s speed took [it] out of my [field of view] and I was unable to reacquire, even at a lower zoom.”

The military service member said the object “appeared to be rectangular,” and said others “with equal or more experience” were also unable to identify it.

In the 20-second video, the object is tracking quickly to the left of the screen before it zooms out of view.

The report came from a “range fouler debrief,” which is a “standardized reporting form the U.S. Navy uses to record the circumstances surrounding an unauthorized intrusion into controlled airspace during active military operations or training,” according to the Pentagon.

Balloon Over the Atlantic?

Another range fouler debrief described a sighting over the Atlantic in 2020 of what an observer suggested could have been an unidentified balloon.

The heavily redacted report stated that the object “traveled with the wind, the closer we came to it,” and that it was difficult to ascertain which direction it was heading, but it was “generally” moving south without any “maneuvers or change in direction.”

“The object itself was a darker, maroonish color, approximately 12-15ft in height. Structurally, it appeared as a large, somewhat deformed balloon, but we were unable to verify that as we passed at the merge,” the observer wrote.

The strange object slowly comes into focus in the 32-second video, which was captured by a U.S. military infrared sensor, before the footage abruptly cuts off.

Manhattan Project Scientists  

One of the historical documents included in the Pentagon’s fourth batch of UFO files is a transcript of a conference at the-then Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in 1949.

Now known as the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the facility was hosting leading scientists and physicists at the time, including many who had worked on the Manhattan Project.

After unknown “green fireballs” had been observed for several months near the laboratory, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission convened the conference to determine their origin and explain the phenomenon.

The panel failed to reach a consensus to explain the “green fireballs,” with one hypothesis suggesting they could be meteors entering the atmosphere at a “shallow” angle and altitude.

Lincoln LaPaz, an expert specializing in meteorics at the time and one of the key witnesses, said “95 percent of the observations indicate a very nearly horizontal path” of the objects, which he estimated were moving “between 3 miles per second and 12 miles per second.”

That would equal roughly 10,800 to 43,200 miles per hour, within the range of speed for a meteor.

However, after running calculations based on the objects’ estimated light, speed, and kinetic energy, Edward Teller suggested that if they were not characteristic of a “material body,” they “might be an electron phenomenon.”

LaPaz replied, “You see why I’m puzzled, Dr. Teller.”

“Nothing like this, to my knowledge, has ever been observed in the case of meteorite drops,” he added.

At the conclusion of the meeting, another scientist said, “The puzzling thing is the long horizontal path; also, absence of noise is puzzling.”

When meteors fall through the atmosphere, their high speed creates a sonic boom, along with other noises, sometimes a crackling or “whooshing” sound.

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 Pentagon Releases 4th Tranche of UFO Files – Military Personnel Describe UFO as “Unlike Anything I Had Seen” in 28 years of Service

The Pentagon released a fourth batch of files on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) on Friday, with 40 new declassified files. 

President Trump previously directed the Department of War and other agencies to begin the process of identifying and declassifying government files related to UAP and extraterrestrial life in the interest of total transparency.

The latest batch of files details the bizarre sightings, with unclassified reports from the military and various agencies, including one where a US military aviator describes seeing an object “unlike anything I had seen” in 28 years of Air Force and Navy service. The sighting was reported flying over the Eastern United States in a 2019 Range Fouler Debrief, which the Pentagon says is “a standardized reporting from the U.S. Navy uses to record the circumstances surrounding an unauthorized intrusion into controlled airspace during active military operations or training.”

“In between mission sorties, I noticed an object with flight characteristics unlike anything I had seen in my 28 years of performing for the USAF and Navy. A small object was below us and appeared to be traveling in a straight line opposite our direction at high speed. I tracked it for ~10-15 seconds before we turned on the recorder to provide the attached video. When I zoomed in to try and achieve more resolution, the object’s speed took out of my FOV and I was unable to reacquire, even at a lower zoom,” the aviator wrote.

Video of the incident shows what looks like a ball of light, which the aviator said “appeared to be rectangular,” flying at high speed.

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