The senior U.S. military officer overseeing the war in Iran accused a House Democrat of impropriety on Tuesday after the lawmaker asserted that the United States was “losing” the conflict and questioned “how many more Americans we have to ask to die for this mistake.”
Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, told Rep. Seth Moulton (Massachusetts) that he had made an “entirely inappropriate statement” during a testy exchange in a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee. It occurred as President Donald Trump contemplates ending the war’s weeks-long ceasefire and resuming military strikes on Iran.
Moulton, a Marine Corps veteran campaigning for a Senate seat, asked Cooper if he was familiar with Gen. William Westmoreland, the Vietnam-era commander who famously downplayed the challenges of that conflict. He also pressed the admiral to account for several unresolved problems, including Iran’s stifling of commercial shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for the movement of Middle Eastern oil and other goods through the Persian Gulf.
“What’s the plan now to actually win this war? Because it feels like we’re losing,” asked Moulton, who served in combat in Iraq. “We don’t have a nuclear deal. We don’t have the strait open. The president has called for unconditional surrender. Is that part of the plan?”
It marked one of several occasions throughout the hearing in which the typically understated Cooper appeared frustrated with pointed questions about decisions made by Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. The admiral dodged answering questions directly on several occasions, saying that the Defense Department’s civilian leaders make policy decisions whereas he presents them with military options.
A spokesman for Cooper declined to comment about his exchange with Moulton. The congressman doubled down on his remarks after the hearing, saying in a statement to The Washington Post, “These are exactly the questions our military leaders should be asking before entering any war.”
“This administration did nothing to justify this war to the Congress or the American people, and now they act offended when members of Congress ask the questions that Americans want answered most,” Moulton said. “If Admiral Cooper is unwilling to ask these questions himself, or is uncomfortable answering them, then he’s not doing his job.”
Tuesday’s hearing was held as Trump repeated comments from a day earlier acknowledging that he had nearly ordered a resumption of miliary strikes against Iran but was persuaded otherwise by Middle Eastern leaders who are hopeful a peace deal is close between Washington and Tehran. Trump, speaking at the White House, said that on Monday he was “an hour away” from ordering a fresh attack after weeks of negotiations have yielded no end to the conflict.
“I hope we don’t have to do the war, but we may have to give them another big hit,” Trump told reporters. “I’m not sure yet. You’ll know very soon.”
The war has proven unpopular with Americans, with a majority disapproving, according to numerous polls. An Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll conducted recently found that 61 percent of Americans say that using military force against Iran was a mistake, with fewer than 2 in 10 Americans believing that the U.S. actions in Iran have been successful. Congressional Republicans have increasingly questioned the administration’s plans, including in a hearing last week.
In his testimony Tuesday, Cooper sought to highlight military successes in the conflict, which began Feb. 28 with an assessment from Trump that hostilities would conclude within four to five weeks. As he has said in other recent hearings, the admiral told House lawmakers that the operation had set back Iran militarily by years and stopped its efforts to build a nuclear weapon.
“American military action derailed Iran’s strategy that was 47 years in the making,” Cooper said, referring to the date when the Iranian regime first took power.
Democrats pressed the admiral and Daniel Zimmerman, a senior political appointee at the Pentagon who testified alongside him, to address whether they assess that hostilities with Iran had stopped. Cooper initially did not answer the questions directly, saying that two sides “remain in a ceasefire” despite some exchanges of fire.
“I‘m really very, very sorry for the two of you,” said Rep. John Garamendi (D-California). “You just cannot answer a question correctly and directly, but you’re doing the best you can.” He accused the Defense Department under Trump and Hegseth of having shown “disregard for the Congress and the U.S. Constitution” by “ignoring” the War Powers Act, a decades-old law that sets a 60-day limit on a president’s ability to direct military action without congressional authorization.
In another tense exchange, Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado), a former Army Ranger, repeatedly pushed Cooper to state that taking “no quarter” — an expression that means to show no mercy on the battlefield — was counter to the Defense Department’s law of war manual. Hegseth, whose bombast and boastful claims throughout the Iran war have aggravated his critics, has used the phrase to describe U.S. efforts.
Cooper declined to do so, instead saying pointedly that the military would follow the separate international law of armed conflict “to the T” and “very calmly,” in an apparent commentary on the congressman’s rising voice.
“This is just unbelievable to me,” Crow said of Cooper’s refusal.
“I find the same thing, sir,” Cooper responded.
“This is not leadership,” Crow said.
Republicans objected to the questioning, with Rep. Joe Wilson (South Carolina) interrupting the exchange and calling it an unfair “personal attack” on Cooper. The committee chairman, Rep. Mike D. Rogers (R-Alabama) responded that members were permitted to ask their questions.
Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin), a retired Navy SEAL, and Rep. Trent Kelly (R-Mississippi), a retired Army National Guard general, objected to the Democrats’ line of questioning over the course of the hearing, with Van Orden calling it “wholly inappropriate to ask active-duty members of the United States military to answer political questions.”
“When people are using this as a platform to elevate themselves politically, they should be ashamed of themselves,” he said.
Republicans on the committee have in the past asked military officers politically sensitive questions.
In one example in September 2021, then-Rep. Matt Gaetz (Florida) accused Gen. Mark A. Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, of spending more time speaking to author Bob Woodward than analyzing the possibility that the Afghan government would fall to the Taliban and asked when Milley became aware that President Joe Biden had “tried to get” Afghan President Ashraf Ghani “to lie about the conditions in Afghanistan.”
Milley responded that he was “not aware” of what Biden may have said to the Afghan leader.
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