What would happen if it became public that Hegseth and Pentagon lied about American casualties in Iran?

[clevergrrrl]

I'm hearing rumblings that the US killed in action and casualty rate in Trump's illegal war are being covered up. And they are much higher than they actually are. Hegseth talking about how the Pentagon isn't going to fight "woke" wars anymore makes me certain that Trump, Leavitt, Hegseth and the Department of Defense would absolutely lie about the casualty numbers. Hegseth is adamant about not having any problems with fighting dirty. What if instead of 7 dead Americans the number was more like 500 or 1000. How would the press react? The reaction in Congress? How would the American public react?

[edhopper]

1. Nothing

Republicans in Congress wouyld ignore it and the Press would mention it for a day and then move on.

[Scubamatt]

3. Not sure the press . . .

would even cover it for a day; they'd just go back to asking why Democrats aren't "supporting our troops" and why they support "illegal immigrants" over good hard working American folk. The mainstream press in America is dead.

[sarisataka]

2. Nothing.

[efhmc]

4. Absolutely not one thing.

[PufPuf23]

5. Nothing.

Nothing new about the DOD lying. DOD lying is a feature not an aberration.

[OC375]

6. I'm sure they will be "revising" the numbers for years

[DJ Synikus Makisimus]

7. Same thing that happened in Trump's classified documents case.

Or to the people responsible for the 2007 crash. Or to the people responsible for the Iraq War. Or to the people responsible for the Vietnam War. And so on.

Nada. Zip. Zero.

Even if liberals return to power somehow, they'll want to bipartisan with their friends.

[Prairie Gates]

8. During the Iraq War, I was a "Hiding Casualties" debunker

Whenever anyone made the claim that the Pentagon was hiding casualties, I would aggressively argue with and try to debunk those claims, including many pixels spilled on this very board, especially in 2003-2004.

I think all the arguments I made then would still hold up: it is very difficult in a pluralistic society like the United States to hide casualty figures at volume. Families of the slain would speak up sooner rather than later, as would others along the whole casualty chain, from others in the unit, to officers, to medical personnel, to chaplains, to transport guys, etc. etc.

So, I think it's pretty much impossible to hide a large number of casualties and especially KIAs for any length of time.

Can you do it for a week to ten days, though?

Maybe. This DoD is so monstrously untrustworthy and so vindictive that I could see keeping a lid on *some* casualties for a few days.

500-1000? No fucking chance.