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Iran war - Casualty count exceeds 600 as Pentagon changes accounting · THE DAILY BRIEF

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  Speaker 1: The Pedicon has updated its war casualty database, adding more
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  Speaker 1: than one hundred and forty wounded and restoring four soldiers
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  Speaker 1: killed in Iranian strikes last weekend. Since the US launched
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  Speaker 1: its war with Iran on February the twenty eighth, eighteen
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  Speaker 1: US troops have died in six hundred and twenty four
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  Speaker 1: have been wounded. Now, this comes after the Pentagon faced
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  Speaker 1: scrutiny last week when an apparent data glitch on the
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  Speaker 1: website meant the casualty numbers actually decreased. We'll see it
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  Speaker 1: as Davis Winky joining me from Atlanta for more. Understandably,
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  Speaker 1: people now seeking further detail on the latest casualties, the
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  Speaker 1: updated figures, who they are, how they were injured, and
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  Speaker 1: why it is that these numbers were reduced over the weekend,
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  Speaker 1: not in not increased. David, what do we know at
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  Speaker 1: this point?
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  Speaker 2: Becky?
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  Speaker 3: This saga is really interesting in that it goes a
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  Speaker 3: lot to show the way that this Pentagon's approach to
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  Speaker 3: transparency breaks from that of previous administrations. They've been treating
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  Speaker 3: the Defense Casualty Analysis System, this online database as the
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  Speaker 3: ongoing source of truth that the public and the media
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  Speaker 3: can access for updated information on war casualties. The issue
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  Speaker 3: with that, though, is that we've been observing this website
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  Speaker 3: on a minute by minute basis for a week at
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  Speaker 3: this point, and we saw data fluctuations. We saw numbers
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  Speaker 3: changing from minute to minute, and those fluctuations when they
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  Speaker 3: would appear on the website and be reproduced by people
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  Speaker 3: who are looking to it as the source info for
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  Speaker 3: casualty info, led to widespread scrutiny, whether it was from
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  Speaker 3: the media, and it also came from some lawmakers. The
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  Speaker 3: twelve Democratic senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee wrote
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  Speaker 3: a letter to the Pentagon the Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth
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  Speaker 3: last Thursday, demanding answer on the issues with the database.
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  Speaker 3: They updated it over the weekend to add these additional casualties,
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  Speaker 3: as you said, and they also added a new category
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  Speaker 3: called Overseas Operations, which is distinguished from their Operation Epic
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  Speaker 3: Fury category, Epic Fury being the first phase of the
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  Speaker 3: Pentagon's war with Iran. The new Overseas Operations category is
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  Speaker 3: interesting because it doesn't have a ton of information on
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  Speaker 3: the where these things occur, how these things occur, and
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  Speaker 3: we're waiting on clarifying info from the Pentagon on that,
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  Speaker 3: But the really important bit is that it starts on
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  Speaker 3: July seventh. That significant, Becky, because the Trump Administration says
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  Speaker 3: July seventh is when a new conflict with Iran began.
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  Speaker 3: For the purposes of the War Powers Act, you know,
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  Speaker 3: the US, the president has sixty days to conduct a
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  Speaker 3: military action before they need congressional approval to continue. Trump
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  Speaker 3: admin said that clock stopped from the first phase of
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  Speaker 3: the war when they declared the ceasefire in April. What
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  Speaker 3: with the new period of the conflicts starting on July seventh,
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  Speaker 3: that's the significance of why we're seeing the new category
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  Speaker 3: pop up to align with that date moving forward, Becky.
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  Speaker 1: That's fascinating. Good to have you, Sep. Thank you.
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  Speaker 4: The full cost of this war is becoming clear. Over
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  Speaker 4: the weekend, the Pentagon quietly updated the total injuries and
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  Speaker 4: casualty since the start of Operation Epic Fury. An online
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  Speaker 4: Defense Department database now lists more than six hundred wounded.
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  Speaker 4: That's up from four hundred and eighty two just last week.
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  Speaker 4: It also lists the total number of troops killed as eighteen.
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  Speaker 4: This coming on the heels of outrage frankly over the
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  Speaker 4: Pentagon removing four names from the war's official death toll.
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  Speaker 4: The deaths of those service members have been reinstated, but
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  Speaker 4: in a new category. The trim administration telling Congress that
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  Speaker 4: Operation Epic Fury is over, a new operation is now underway.
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  Speaker 5: These databases should really be reflecting reality, regardless of political
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  Speaker 5: niceties of the War Powers Act or which operation you're in,
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  Speaker 5: whether it's Epic Fury or the follow on to Epic
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  Speaker 5: Fury or something else. The key thing is that these
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  Speaker 5: data bases be accurate and that they reflect the true
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  Speaker 5: nature of the cost of war.
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  Speaker 4: Joining me now in the group chat Sarah Ffiiciercy and
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  Speaker 4: In senior media analysts and senior media reporter at Axos,
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  Speaker 4: Laura Davison, West Washington, Deputy bureau chief at Bloomberg News,
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  Speaker 4: and Franchessca Chambers, White House correspondent at USA Today. The
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  Speaker 4: fact that the Defense Department is classifying deaths injuries in
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  Speaker 4: a different way, also looking to do overseas operation versus
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  Speaker 4: Operation Epic Fury, that has a really significant impact Francisca.
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  Speaker 2: And this also comes after President Trump himself said that
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  Speaker 2: the number was eighteen last week while he was justifying
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  Speaker 2: the ongoing war in Iran and defending it, especially after
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  Speaker 2: the House had just taken that vote to say that
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  Speaker 2: the operations should not continue in Iran. He said that
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  Speaker 2: it was eighteen compared to some of these other wars
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  Speaker 2: that lasted years and had thousands of death So, you know,
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  Speaker 2: just putting that out there as an acknowledgment from the
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  Speaker 2: President himself of what the death hole in this war
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  Speaker 2: has been now as far as how they're trying to
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  Speaker 2: reclassify it at the Pentagon, you know, I was speaking
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  Speaker 2: to House Speaker Mike Johnson earlier in the month and
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  Speaker 2: he or at the end of last month, you know,
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  Speaker 2: and he had also said that that they he thought
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  Speaker 2: that the sixty day clock on this would restart if
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  Speaker 2: the Trump administration had the ceasefire breakdown and then restart.
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  Speaker 2: That seems to be the argument that the Trump administration
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  Speaker 2: is trying to make now, which is that this is
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  Speaker 2: a new conflict clocks restarted on this congressional approval timeframe.
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  Speaker 4: It is fascinating though, to watch the back and forth here.
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  Speaker 4: I mean, this is right, and certainly the backlash he
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  Speaker 4: saw this is all entirely of the administration. So I'm
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  Speaker 4: making message.
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  Speaker 6: Wise, yes, and it's part of a larger communications failure
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  Speaker 6: around the war. And it's not just deaths, it's also
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  Speaker 6: how and when does the ceasefire actually start, when does
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  Speaker 6: it conclude. I think that the American people are not naive.
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  Speaker 6: They look at this conflict in its totality, which is
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  Speaker 6: it didn't have to be a war of our making.
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  Speaker 6: It was a war by choice, as the Democrats are saying,
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  Speaker 6: and they don't really care whether or not a death
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  Speaker 6: occurred in one part of the war or after a
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  Speaker 6: cease fire. They just want to understand holistically, how many
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  Speaker 6: people were hurt, how many people were killed. It also
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  Speaker 6: matters a lot for congressional funding, because when you're asking
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  Speaker 6: Congress for money, one of the things that you have
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  Speaker 6: to consider if you're a member is do we need
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  Speaker 6: to give more funding to protect people's lives. Well, if
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  Speaker 6: you don't have a real accurate sense of how many
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  Speaker 6: people's lives are being impacted, how do you make those decisions?
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  Speaker 6: And so this is a crisis of confidence in terms
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  Speaker 6: of not just how much we are reporting, but also
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  Speaker 6: how we're communicating it. I don't think the American people
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  Speaker 6: are buying necessarily this reclassification of the numbers.
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  Speaker 4: An administration that likes to bill itself is the most
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  Speaker 4: transparent in history, and you're dealing with a Pentagon that
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  Speaker 4: is not, frankly transparent. It is not as forthcoming with
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  Speaker 4: information and making themselves as available. There have also been
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  Speaker 4: there has also been reporting about some pushback from Vice
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  Speaker 4: President Vance as well as General Kine. Mike Walls, US
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  Speaker 4: Ambassador to the UN, was asked specifically about the low stockpiles.
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  Speaker 4: One of the things that he noted, I'm paraphrasing here,
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  Speaker 4: was that part of the reason the stockpiles were so
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  Speaker 4: low was because of the Ukraine War, because of decisions
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  Speaker 4: made under President Biden's administration, you know, speaking of the
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  Speaker 4: military officials. It's not really that simple. The fact though,
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  Speaker 4: that the stockpiles are being questioned, How does that add
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  Speaker 4: to complications for this administration when there are questions about
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  Speaker 4: just how prepared and for how long the US could
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  Speaker 4: be involved.
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  Speaker 7: This really just shows how few options the administration has
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  Speaker 7: at this moment. This is kind of a classic supply
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  Speaker 7: and demand problem of there aren't enough missiles that can
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  Speaker 7: be resupplied, and the defense contractors have been to the
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  Speaker 7: White House multiple times. Trump has really been haranging them
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  Speaker 7: to produce faster, but there's lots of regulations, they have
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  Speaker 7: to be produced domestically. They just can't keep up with
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  Speaker 7: the speed at which they're being used. Secondly, the Pentagon
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  Speaker 7: is also needing more money. You know, you've seen Hegseth
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  Speaker 7: up on the Hill asking for seventy billion dollars more
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  Speaker 7: to fund this wartration doesn't really either have control over
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  Speaker 7: you know, the production of these or the money that
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  Speaker 7: that's Congress's job. All they can do is control how
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  Speaker 7: quickly they're using them. So we're seeing now you know
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  Speaker 7: that at least the reports that they're talking about rationing
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  Speaker 7: them to you know, be able to you know, have
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  Speaker 7: a war that was supposed to last four to six weeks.
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  Speaker 7: Now we're in that four to six months range. And
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  Speaker 7: who really knows where this ends.
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  Speaker 4: We were told to over the weekend this is a pause,
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  Speaker 4: right to allow diplomatic efforts to continue. Is there a
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  Speaker 4: sense that there's any change in those diplomatic efforts, any
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  Speaker 4: change in the part of the United States or even
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  Speaker 4: Iran on what is potentially being offered.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, we've seen this repeatedly. Right that the negotiations
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  Speaker 2: are on, that the negotiations are off, then the US
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  Speaker 2: was you know, was bombing for nearly two straight weeks
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  Speaker 2: every single night, trying to force Iran to get back
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  Speaker 2: to the table. So it's very difficult to say at
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  Speaker 2: this point, where are these talks, you know stand in
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  Speaker 2: how much longer we expect the war to go on
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  Speaker 2: on the munition stockpiles though, I just want to add that,
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  Speaker 2: you know, allies around the world are concerned. I think
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  Speaker 2: about the levels in case of another potential conflict breaking
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  Speaker 2: out somewhere else. The United States is having to tap
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  Speaker 2: into some of the munitions that it has in other places.
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  Speaker 2: You've got countries like Ukraine where it isn't being given
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  Speaker 2: a stockpiles from US anymore. It is buying those through NATO,
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  Speaker 2: but asking to co produce missiles and weapons with the
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  Speaker 2: United States now just saying let us produce them. At
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  Speaker 2: this point we can do it just as quickly. And
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  Speaker 2: so this is part of a broader argument about readiness
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  Speaker 2: around the world for conflicts.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely