Hegseth Defends $37.5B Iran War as Senate Democrats Warn of 'Forever War'

In the long American story of wars that outlast their promises, a Senate hearing room in late July 2026 became the latest stage for a reckoning: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived asking for $37.5 billion already spent and $70 billion more, while 17 service members lay dead and the administration's assurances of imminent peace grew harder to reconcile with the arithmetic of escalation. The Iran conflict, now weeks old and already deeply costly in blood and treasure, has exposed the enduring tension between executive war-making and legislative accountability — a fracture that budget reconci