WASHINGTON, July 22– U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday asked for more funding for the U.S. war against Iran at a Senate hearing, as a recent poll found the majority of Americans believe the war is not worth fighting.
Supplemental funding for the war with Iran is “urgent, necessary,” Hegseth testified during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. “Without these funds, we face critical shortfalls,” said Hegseth, whose opening remarks were interrupted multiple times by protesters, some holding signs that read “No War on Iran.” At the hearing, Hegseth said the U.S. war against Iran has cost 37.5 billion U.S. dollars so far, up from the 29 billion dollars estimated in May. Hegseth’s remarks came as Republican lawmakers sought congressional approval for U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed 1.5-trillion-dollar defense budget, even as a growing number of polls showed rising public backlash against the war on Iran. A recent Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 68 percent of Americans believe the war is not “worth fighting.” The Washington Post noted that the assessment of this war is worse than in any Post-ABC News poll during the long Iraq War and on par with the worst ratings of the war in Afghanistan, which came in July 2013, when 67 percent said that conflict was not worth fighting. A Quinnipiac University poll released in June showed that 45 percent of voters said the United States was in a weaker position in the world as a result of the U.S. war against Iran.
Xinhua
