Pentagon plays down report of Hegseth regularly overruling military advice

Pete Hegseth regularly receives formal objections from senior commanders and proceeds anyway, the Pentagon’s top spokesman has said, as he tried to discredit a Washington Post report that four generals and admirals had advised against prolonging the war in Iran.“Of course, we demand candid military advice,” Sean Parnell wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Non-concurs are standard. The Secretary sees them constantly. That’s how you run a real military.”Parnell was responding to the Post’s account of four four-star commanders who had lodged formal “non-concurs” against a plan to keep more than 50,000 US troops in the Middle East through September, with some deployments potentially running into 2027.In dismissing the story, Parnell did not dispute that the objections had been filed, or that Hegseth fields such dissent on an ongoing basis.“Publishing highly classified assessments from the Secretary’s orders book is a crime,” he wrote. “It’s a betrayal of the force. And much of what they’re publishing is inaccurate … We are in great shape around the world. This story isn’t about readiness. It’s TDS and PDS – they hate President Trump and Secretary Hegseth more than they love America.”It was unclear which parts of the story the Pentagon deems to be inaccurate. A community note attached to the X post noted that, while leaking classified material is illegal for government employees, the US supreme court ruled in 1971 that the first amendment protects the press’s right to publish classified information of public interest.The non-concurs described by the Post were in the 14 August edition of the secretary of defense orders book, a classified document typically produced twice a month that tracks the availability and deployment of US forces worldwide. They reportedly came from Adm Daryl Caudle, chief of naval operations; Gen Alexus Grynkewich, head of US European Command; Gen Francis L Donovan, chief of US Southern Command; and Adm Samuel Paparo, chief of US Indo-Pacific Command.The army and air force are said to have concurred with extending their deployments, but warned of significant risks.Caudle told Hegseth the navy could not sustain its current level of commitment because no end date for the operation had been set, according to the Post, which cited people familiar with the assessment. Paparo objected to the continued demand for an aircraft carrier strike group and destroyers. The European and Southern Command chiefs said shifting ships and surveillance aircraft to Central Command was already degrading their ability to fulfill homeland-defense obligations.In a statement to the Post issued before publication, Parnell used calmer language, saying troop-commitment decisions were “based on the current threat assessment, strategic priorities established by the President, and the advice” of military leadership. He said the department does not discuss “internal operational processes” or specific non-concurrences.Dan Lamothe, the Post reporter who broke the story, wrote on X that “independent journalism is not a crime” and that such reporting was necessary when officials withhold details about a war funded by taxpayers.The exchange came days after US and Iranian forces traded fire for the first time in roughly a month, and six weeks after Hegseth told senators the war had cost an estimated $37.5bn, including projected costs through September.Still, Donald Trump on Monday morning in effect said the war was won.“Iran is officially a Failed Nation. IT IS DEAD!” the president wrote on Truth Social. “They have no Navy, they have no Air Force, they have no currency, they are not paying their soldiers or police, Inflation is at 300%, and their leadership is in total disarray and incapable of properly representing the country.” He accused Iran’s government of killing more than 100,000 protesters and said its leaders “must be tried for war crimes against humanity”.Neither Trump nor Parnell explained how that squares with what four of the Pentagon’s own commanders had put in writing: that they can’t sustain the war effort as ordered.