Republicans in Congress are growing more anxious about the Trump administration’s handling of the war in Iran as their questions about its objectives and cost, including whether ground troops will be needed, go unanswered.
Several G.O.P. lawmakers emerged on Wednesday from classified briefings with Pentagon officials on Capitol Hill complaining that they had not received crucial details about the way forward. Their frustration came nearly a month into a conflict in which Republicans have given President Trump broad latitude to wage war with no congressional input, and resisted calling administration officials to provide a public accounting of what they are doing.
Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, the Republican chairman of the Armed Services Committee, who attended one of the briefings on Wednesday, said senior officials had failed to provide basic details about the scope and direction of the military campaign.
“We want to know more about what’s going on,” an uncharacteristically irritated Mr. Rogers told reporters. “We’re just not getting enough answers.”
Across the Capitol, Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi, the Republican chairman of his chamber’s Armed Services panel, suggested he was also frustrated about the lack of information.
“Let me put it this way,” Mr. Wicker said of his House counterpart, according to Politico. “I can see why he might have said that.”
The complaints came as the Pentagon prepared to deploy nearly 7,000 additional troops to the Middle East, including forces from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit based at Camp Pendleton, Calif., and the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division, moves intended to bolster operations tied to the war in Iran. They also surfaced as lawmakers also are bracing for a potential $200 billion funding request from the Trump administration to pay for the conflict.
Other Republicans echoed those concerns, pointing to discrepancies between the administration’s public rationale and objectives for the war and the information that had been shared privately with them.
Representative Nancy Mace of South Carolina said she left the briefing troubled by what she described as shifting explanations for the conflict and unclear military objectives.
“The justifications presented to the American public for the war in Iran were not the same military objectives we were briefed on today in the House Armed Services Committee,” Ms. Mace said in a social media post. “This gap is deeply troubling. The longer this war continues, the faster it will lose the support of Congress and the American people.”
In classified briefings for lawmakers in both chambers on Wednesday, Pentagon officials declined to outline when or how U.S. ground forces might be used in Iran, according to two people familiar with the sessions who spoke about them on the condition of anonymity. During the closed-door session with senators, according to another person familiar with it who requested anonymity to describe it in general terms, the Republican Senators Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska complained about how limited the information was, including requests for details on the cost of the military campaign.
Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota, said that officials “don’t have an official number at this point,” for the cost of the operation. Asked about the Pentagon’s $200 billion funding request for the war, he told reporters that the administration was “obviously” working to “figure out how we’re going to get it done.”
To date, few Republicans have publicly joined Democrats in raising questions about the war, even as Democrats have tried repeatedly to demand testimony from top officials and force votes insisting that Congress authorize the use of force. But with the conflict dragging on, gas prices rising and more U.S. troops heading to the region, some in the G.O.P. have begun sounding alarms.
“We will not sacrifice American lives for the same failed foreign policies,” Ms. Mace said on Wednesday. “The war machine may be willing to give the lives of your sons and daughters for the price of oil, but we are not.”
At the White House, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, defended the administration’s approach, reiterating that it does not believe formal congressional authorization is required at this stage of the conflict.
She said notifications to Congress and classified briefings had been provided “out of courtesy and out of respect,” describing the current situation in the Middle East not as a war but as “major combat operations” against Iran.
Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.
Robert Jimison covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on defense issues and foreign policy.
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