“Air Force Secretary confirms US deployed weapons in space”, 15 September 2026 (Photo via The Hill — the original report)
As it ran on the front
On February 28, the Iran war began. By August 28, six months in, The Washington Post found "no end in sight." By September 16, the Congressional Budget Office put a number on that phrase: $38 billion spent, running $2 billion to $3 billion a month, with no closing date attached.
That number did not arrive alone. On September 3, former Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall called the Pentagon under Secretary Pete Hegseth "dysfunctional." The same day, the Pentagon extended Middle East troop deployments into 2027, holding a presence of 50,000 troops in the region. Three days later, Kendall went further, telling ABC he "couldn't serve" in this administration. The same day, Cait Conley, a 16-year Army combat veteran now running for Congress, called Hegseth a national-security "hazard" and said she would vote to impeach him.…
…(cont) On September 10, Iran answered with ballistic missiles at a U.S. base in Jordan. Multiple F-15 fighter jets took damage; an A-10 Thunderbolt took the worst of it. The bill kept running.
By September 15, Rep. Thomas Massie had filed impeachment articles against Hegseth over the war. That same day, on CBS, former Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster was asked about the $38 billion figure and called it "worth it."
The next morning, the paperwork caught up with the sentence. The Pentagon's own inspector general documented what the money bought: hundreds of military facilities destroyed, and helicopters reserved for medical evacuation pulled out of four countries. CBS obtained photographs of the wreckage at U.S. bases across the Middle East. And Massie, not satisfied with filing articles, walked onto the House floor and forced a vote.
Reconcile the ledger, hon: two government offices — the budget scorekeeper and the inspector general — spent the same week describing the same war in the same flat tone, one in dollars, one in helicopters. A former Air Force secretary called the man running it dysfunctional. A combat veteran called him a hazard. A national security adviser called the total worth it, on television, without being asked worth it to whom. And the congressman who forced the floor to reckon with all of it is a member of his own party.
Nobody in this column disputes a single number. They disagree, loudly and on the record, about what the number is for.
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“They spent thirty-eight billion dollars, lost helicopters, wrecked their own bases, and the guy who used to run the Air Force says he couldn't stomach working there anymore. And the answer from the guy who used to run national security wasn't "we messed up," it was "worth it" — worth it to who, pal, because it sure isn't showing up in your kid's lunch account. When the party in charge can't agree amongst themselves whether their own defense secretary should keep his job, that's not politics, that's the fire alarm going off in the building you're standing in.”
“Look, thirty-eight billion sounds like a big number, but context — regional stability, deterrence, the strait — this is not a lot of money in the grand scheme, and McMaster identifying that on air just calls it what defense professionals already know. Okay, maybe "worth it" wasn't the smoothest word choice that particular week, but the alternative was doing nothing, and doing nothing has never — did I just say never? Strike that. The helicopters getting pulled from four countries just shows the flexibility of the force, not the — actually, hang on, that does sound bad when you put it that way.”
Welcome to The Hill's Defense & NatSec newsletter {beacon} Defense &National Security Defense &National Security The Big Story Air Force Secretary confirms US deployed weapons in space Air Force Secretary Troy Meink confirmed Monday that the U.S. military has deployed a weapon into space, marking the first time an American official has…
The Pentagon has failed its audit eight years running — the only major federal agency never to pass one. Military Times, 19 December 2025
Former Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster joins "The Takeout" to discuss Tuesday's report from the Congressional Budget Office showing that the Iran war has cost an estimated $38 billion from Feb. 28 to Aug.
The Pentagon has failed its audit eight years running - the only major federal agency never to pass one Military Times, 19 December 2025
Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie seized the House floor Tuesday, launching a longshot bid to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth “for high crimes and misdemeanors."
The Pentagon has failed its audit eight years running - the only major federal agency never to pass one Military Times, 19 December 2025
New images obtained exclusively by CBS News reveal devastating damage across U.S. bases in the Middle East after missile and drone strikes from Iran. CBS News' Jonah Kaplan has more.
The Pentagon has failed its audit eight years running - the only major federal agency never to pass one Military Times, 19 December 2025
The United States has spent $38 billion on the Iran war and will continue to spend billions monthly, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office. CBS News' Eleanor Watson has more.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.
