Benghazi cost four American lives at a single compound, and Congress gave it ten investigations and two years of televised fury. Beirut in 1983 produced a commission within weeks, and Pearl Harbor had its inquiry inside eleven days. That is how a serious country treats a military disaster.
This week the Pentagon's own inspector general confirmed that Iran has damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings at American bases in eight countries, along with dozens of aircraft. Neither Vietnam, Iraq nor Afghanistan ever saw the American footprint across a whole region hammered at once, and the public only learned of it because soldiers leaked photographs while Hegseth shrugged about the occasional "squirter."
General Caine warned before the first bomb fell that stockpiles and defences were not ready. Hegseth, a former television host, has since fired or blocked more than eighty generals and admirals, so the war is being run with the adults removed from the building.
When a Republican congressman filed eight articles of impeachment this week, the Speaker sent the House home early rather than allow a vote.
