A series of unprecedented Pentagon leaks stunned onlookers Monday, appearing designed to pull the United States out of a war rather than push it deeper in, breaking with decades of precedent.
On Sunday, The Washington Post published a bombshell report that revealed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had been warned by several U.S. military leaders that a prolonged large-scale operation against Iran was “unsustainable,” despite Hegseth’s claims to the contrary. The Post’s report was based on a recent classified assessment and inside sources, suggesting Pentagon officials had leaked the information to the outlet.
As argued by conservative commentator Saagar Enjeti, the leaks illustrated how poorly the deeply unpopular U.S. war against Iran had gone during its first six months.
“Never in my lifetime have I seen the Pentagon brass desperately leak to keep the US OUT of a war. It is always the opposite to box a President in,” Enjeti wrote Monday in a social media post on X. “Just shows how bad things are.”
Andrew Fox, a retired British Army major and military analyst, was equally stunned by the nature of the leaks.
“An astonishing leak, and not officially denied, to my knowledge,” Fox wrote Monday in a social media post on X. “A leak like this is unprecedented. Perhaps some US officers do remember the ‘and domestic’ part of their oath.”
Others, like foreign policy scholar Arta Moeini, were more taken aback by which forces appeared to be pushing for the United States to continue its war against Iran.
“Even the US military wants to pull back from the Middle East. Ironically it's the civilian leadership that keeps us permanently engaged in a region peripheral to our interests,” Moeini wrote Monday in a social media post on X.
Never in my lifetime have I seen the Pentagon brass desperately leak to keep the US OUT of a war. It is always the opposite to box a President in
Just shows how bad things are https://t.co/gJCxBjBZcU
— Saagar Enjeti (@esaagar) August 31, 2026
