Hegseth faces Senators after nearly 100 U.S. troops injured in Iran War

[00:00:00]Let's get to what's going on in DC.

[00:00:01]There's always some happenings that are going on in DC today and let's move over here a little bit so I can get centered up there.

[00:00:08]One of the big things is Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and General Dan Cain they are appearing in a in a house briefing I mean in a congressional hearing that's happening right now.

[00:00:19]>> Right and I would we kind of been waiting all day for this to happen so we could have a little more about what they're saying during this hearing but it's it's all about the administration that is requesting 87 billion dollars to basically help pay for the Iran war. 67 billion of that is for the Pentagon and senators they want they want answers.

[00:00:42]They want you know a timeline for the war. They want to know why the ammunition stockpile has been depleted.

[00:00:50]Part of that in this administration part of that in the previous you know according to officials of course and and also the cost of this conflict why it is it has been so expensive.

[00:01:03]The initial estimate was 30 billion.

[00:01:05]Right the timeline of the war I mean previously Congress was told it was 30 billion now estimates are at a hundred billion which is a huge discrepancy.

[00:01:15]>> Yeah and it comes as a mid-air strikes have ramped up. There is a lot of rhetoric coming from President Trump about what he wants to do considering the fact that US service members were killed three more of them in strikes that have been done by Iran in Jordan. Also the strikes coming from Iran that have been happening Kuwait and Jordan Bahrain Qatar and so there's a a lot of concern and uncertainty about the war and how far it's going to go and how deep and asking for more money right now there's a lot of people that want more answers on Capitol Hill and not just Democrats but Republicans that want to know exactly what's going on because Pentagon for the first time we're hearing is that there were a hundred people that were injured in in air strikes uh since July 7th and many of them are back on the on >> I think 97% of them are back on the job but right there is the >> The fact that we haven't heard there's no Pentagon briefing every day so this is the one chance for the Pentagon and Hagel said and and Ken General Dan Cain to sit there in in front of the lawmakers and tell them exactly what is going on and be a little bit more transparent.

[00:02:20]>> think a lot of people were surprised with how frequent the briefings were in the beginning every day giving an update on everything and we haven't heard anything as of late. Um we have talked before about the comparison the cost of this war compared to other wars in the past including inflation and it it doesn't even come close to measuring up to you know some of the bigger wars that the United States have has faced but the timeline question of of when is this war wrapping up is important here because the cost per day for the war against Iran has been unusually expensive. I mean we're talking about modern missile defense and just the technology that is now used it's adding up very quickly. So for such a short war to be in an estimated 100 billion dollar price point here there is some concern that if this continues to drag on that this is going to cost the US a lot of money.

[00:03:20]>> Yeah and there's some concerns quagmires has been used endless wars have been used this is what President Trump had said that was not going to happen and he'll say that it's only four months in but the the off ramp here is what everyone's talking about the off ramp and they're not seeing much of an off ramp right here and hopefully the Pentagon >> there was hope with that ceasefire but that dwindled very quickly.

[00:03:41]>> Yeah in the meantime gas prices are pushed back up above four dollars a gallon 371 on average here in North Carolina so those are some very very big issues that we're dealing with and a new >> Queen City News Plus. Just search Queen City News on your smart TV's app store.