Pentagon Erupts Over Report on Secret Warnings Against Iran War

The Pentagon is scrambling to contain a leak from within the military’s top brass.
Defense officials were left fuming after top military leaders spoke with The Washington Post Sunday, revealing they had advised Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that a long-term engagement in Iran could have disastrous effects for American defense systems around the world—including at home.

The warnings appeared in the August 14 edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book, a classified internal document outlining the availability and readiness of U.S. forces stationed around the world, as understood by the heads of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, and the four-star officers overseeing global operations.

Shortly after the article’s publication, Defense Department spokesperson Sean Parnell falsely claimed on social media that the publication of the report was not only wrong, but also illegal.

“Publishing highly classified assessments from the Secretary’s orders book is a crime. It’s a betrayal of the force,” Parnell wrote. “And much of what they’re publishing is inaccurate.”

Fact check: While it’s against the law for government employees to leak sensitive or classified government details, the Supreme Court ruled in 1971 that the press’s ability to publicize that information is protected under the First Amendment. That was the outcome of New York Times Co. v. United States, which pitted the daily newspaper against the Nixon administration after it published a top-secret history of the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers.

“The Secretary sees them constantly. That’s how you run a real military. We are in great shape around the world. This story isn’t about readiness. It’s TDS and PDS,” Parnell continued in his post, using acronyms as stand-ins for “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and “Pete Derangement Syndrome.”

“They hate President Trump and Secretary Hegseth more than they love America,” he added.

Adam D’Ortona, an active-duty Army lieutenant colonel who runs the account InfantryDort, similarly used his social media presence to attack the Post, claiming that it was “fact” that the staff of one of America’s largest newspapers is working for the “enemies of the United States.”

“Worse, this isn’t gossip,” D’Ortona continued. “Revealing where senior commanders believe forces are stretched, where they perceive risk, and which commitments they consider unsustainable gives an adversary information it can immediately exploit.”

D’Ortona works in Hegseth’s office, according to a USA Today report from 2025.

The Iran war is entering its seventh month with no end in sight. For Americans, the conflict has killed at least 18 U.S. service members, and taken an enormous toll on daily life across the country, inflaming the cost of practically everything as shipping companies contend with rising oil costs. Meanwhile it has killed more than 3,500 people in Iran and injured tens of thousands more, according to data published by Al Jazeera.