Veterans are criticizing the Trump administration for changing how it tracks deaths in the Iran war in such a way that the casualty count initially appears lower.
Over the weekend, the Pentagon split its data about the war between two separate pages. One covers Operation Epic Fury, the formal name for the first phase of the Iran conflict, which officials declared over in early May. The other tracks “overseas operations casualties” since July 7, when the U.S.-Iran ceasefire crumbled and near-daily rounds of strikes from both sides resumed.
As a result of the change, four of the 18 people listed as killed in the main Iran part of the war were moved into the new category.
Critics alleged the change served to obscure the escalating nature of the conflict and reinforce the Trump administration’s claim it was waging an entirely new operation against Iran, skirting the requirements of the War Powers Act, which requires military operations to end within 60 days unless approved by Congress.
“It’s so disrespectful to our service members who gave their lives, and the only reason they died was because Donald Trump decided to do this illegal war,” Michael E. Smith, a retired rear admiral and founder of the group National Security Leaders for America, told The Guardian. “I mean, clearly the president is very sensitive about the deaths. You know, he is comparing it to Korea and Vietnam.”
The president last week described 18 service members having been killed in the Iran conflict.
Adam Kinzinger, a veteran and former Republican member of Congress, wrote on X that the change was “disgusting.”
He added that the president, secretary of defense, and “everyone associated with this administration will be embarrassed the rest of their miserable lives.”
“Let me explain this absurd ruse: The Pentagon is pretending there have been two Iran wars separated by a brief cease-fire,” Rep. Thomas Massie, a frequent Republican critic of the president, wrote on X. “The reality: By going more than 90 days without congressional authorization [the Secretary of Defense] IS BREAKING THE LAW and must be held accountable.”
The Independent has contacted the White House and Pentagon for comment.
A Pentagon spokesperson told the New York Times that “since Operation Epic Fury has concluded, the department classifies casualties as overseas operations in the CENTCOM area of responsibility.”
The anger over casualty counts joins larger frustration with the Trump administration’s handling of public information about the Iran conflict.
The Pentagon has not held a full public press briefing about the war since May.
“If service members are wounded in action, if they’re hurt, again, that is a measure for the public to know how this particular war is going,” David Lapan, who served as a Pentagon spokesperson in the Bush and Obama administrations, told military news outlet Task & Purpose. “In the absence of specific information from the department about these military operations, unfortunately, casualty reporting is one of the few ways that the public can judge how this war is going.”
The weekend changes to the Pentagon’s Defense Casualty Analysis System included the disclosure that 142 people more people had been injured in recent fighting than was previously known.
Pentagon officials originally explained the changed to the data as a “temporary data disruption.”
In a post Thursday on X, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell called suggestions of an intentional reduction “one of the worst instances of the Fake News media manufacturing lies out of thin air for absolutely no reason at all but to cause distress among the American people.”
