Rep. Pat Ryan, D-N.Y., a U.S. Army combat veteran and member of the House Armed Services Committee, tore into Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth after a new report found that more American service members have died in the Middle East amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing war with Iran than the Pentagon has publicly disclosed.
While the Pentagon’s public database, the Defense Casualty Analysis System, lists 18 U.S. military fatalities since the conflict began in February, which includes deaths caused by hostile and nonhostile action, five U.S. officials familiar with the department’s internal data told The Washington Post that number is at least 22.
A sixth official, who told the Post that 23 service members have died since the United States and Israel launched their attacks on Iran, said the reported undisclosed deaths are not all directly tied to the war but have involved U.S. personnel who were in the region amid the ongoing hostilities.
Ryan, who served two combat tours in Iraq and earned two Bronze Stars, told MS NOW’s “The Weekend” on Sunday that the Post’s reporting “needs way more attention.”
As Ryan noted, the Pentagon had been accused of obfuscating the casualty count of the president’s war with Iran. In July, the Defense Department removed four fallen soldiers and dozens of injured service members from a list associated with the conflict, placing them in a separate category. (The Pentagon said the change was the result of “anomalies” and “temporary data disruptions.”)
“We already knew they were, to be generous, playing around,” Ryan said, “but this is a blatant, unprecedented cover-up.”
The New York Democrat said that the Pentagon’s reported actions “hearkens back to the worst days of the Vietnam era, where we were just sending waves of our young men and women into a bloody mess with no plan and no transparency.”
Hegseth denied the allegations that his agency had undercounted deaths. In a post on X, he called the reporting “DISGUSTING and FAKE” and a “complete LIE.”
“Shame on the Washington Post — they’re worse than Iranian state media,” he added.
Ryan told MS NOW that based on the information he has seen as a lawmaker, the Post’s report appears to be accurate.
“I’m on the Armed Services Committee,” he said. “Without getting too into the classified stuff: Believe The Washington Post, do not believe the consistently lying culture warrior Pete Hegseth, who is the most incompetent and immoral Secretary of Defense by 10x that we’ve ever had — and I don’t say that lightly.”
“We honor the sacrifice of those fallen by being honest, not by lying,” Ryan added.
You can watch Ryan’s full interview in the clip at the top of the page.
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