The father of a US military member killed in the Iran war has contradicted Pete Hegseth’s claim that bereaved families urged him to “finish” the job in the Middle East. “What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength and through unbreakable resolve, was the same from family after family. When he spoke to me, that was not something we talked about,” he told NBC News. Charles Simmons, meanwhile, told NBC that he did not “have all the data” to be able to establish if joint US-Israel bombing of Iran was justified. Earlier this month Trump said he expected there will be more US military deaths before the conflict ends.

Source: The Guardian March 20, 2026 17:20 UTC