Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s latest attack against Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) is underscoring the alarm over the state of the U.S. military’s weapons stockpiles more than two months into the war with Iran.
Hegseth accused Kelly, a Navy veteran and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), of divulging classified information regarding key U.S. munitions during his appearance on a Sunday news show, putting a spotlight not only on his ongoing feud with the Arizona Republican but also on the high-usage rate of premier munitions against Tehran and the time it will take to replenish them.
“Let’s put aside that the general thrust of munition depletion is not classified, and Kelly did not go near the details. For Hegseth to bicker over classification rather than address the core argument Kelly makes suggests Hegseth simply can’t argue on the facts,” said Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon official who is now a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. “It’s the national security equivalent of going ad hominem on a debate opponent when you’re poorly matched on knowledge, ability and content.”
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