Amna Nawaz
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WATCH: 'Wish fulfillment is not' an Iran war strategy, Rep. Smith says in Hegseth hearing
Posted
April 29, 2026
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April 29, 2026
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3:45Now PlayingRep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, blasted the Trump administration for starting the war in Iran and suggesting the U.S. was operating without a clear strategy.
"Wish fulfillment is not really a strategy. I mean, maybe the president thinks he's doing some sort of Jedi mind trick and can tell Iran, 'You will give up your nuclear weapons,' and they automatically will, but that's not working," Smith said in an opening statement in a hearing with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The lawmaker said that a paramount question for Wednesday’s budget hearing would be what will actually work to achieve change in the Iran war.
“All we keep hearing on the objectives is we keep seeing all of the targets that we have struck,” he said, adding that’s “incredible accomplishment from a tactical standpoint” to see the U.S. military’s proficiency. “But we're not in this for a tactical advantage. We're in this to fundamentally change Iran.”
Smith said that Iran's nuclear program is “exactly what it was before this war started.”
“They have not lost their capacity to inflict pain. They still have a ballistic missile program. They're still able to blockade the Strait of Hormuz. … What is the plan to get that to change, and most disturbingly, the president keeps telling us that it's over.”
Hegseth and Caine were invited to testify on President Donald Trump’s 2027 budget request to increase defense spending to $1.5 trillion – the largest proposed amount in decades.
The House hearing gave lawmakers a chance to question the defense leaders for the first time since the start of the war on Iran, which the U.S. and Israel launched at the end of February. While Hegseth has touted the Iran war as “a gift to the world,” polls have found that a majority of Americans disapprove of the conflict and the Trump administration’s handling of it.
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