Pentagon Brands Iran War Leak a 'Crime'

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell accused whoever leaked a classified military assessment of the Iran war of committing "a crime" and "a betrayal of the force," escalating a public fight with The Washington Post over its report that top commanders warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth the six-month war is wearing down the U.S. military.

Parnell told Newsweek in a statement Sunday afternoon that the reporting is "fake news, poorly sourced" and "full of inaccuracies, which is typical for the Washington Post."

Post reporter Dan Lamothe answered on X: "Fact check: Independent journalism is not a crime."

What the Assessment Said

The heads of European Command, Pacific Command and Southern Command each filed formal non-concurrences, saying the continued diversion of ships, surveillance aircraft and other assets has degraded their ability to meet homeland-defense obligations, according to the Post's account.

The Navy's top admiral, Daryl Caudle, delivered the starkest warning, reportedly telling Hegseth the service "cannot sustain its current level of support" because the conflict has no end date. Caudle said barely one-fourth of the Navy's destroyer fleet is ready to deploy, a sharp drop from prewar levels, and that maintenance backlogs could hurt the fleet's ability to answer other crises.

Army and Air Force leaders concurred with extending deployments but flagged the risks. Elements of the 82nd Airborne Division will have mobilizations extended to a full year, and Patriot missile units — already strained by losses and donations to Ukraine — are expected to stay in the region longer.

Depletion of Patriot and THAAD interceptors, Tomahawk cruise missiles and Reaper drones has limited the administration's ability to escalate, the report said. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated last month that the U.S. had roughly 452 THAAD interceptors before the war and as few as 234 by the end of July, and that Patriot interceptors fell from about 2,330 prewar to as low as 759 by July 27.