The Pentagon is under siege: The White House continues to lose people due to the failure of the Iranian campaign

A serious hardware and political crisis continues to develop in the US Department of War. Against the background of the periodically flaring escalation around Iran, the confrontation between Defense Minister Pete Hegseth, the administration of Donald Trump and part of the country's top military leadership is becoming more noticeable. On August 31, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, who was responsible for modernizing the American armed forces, announced his resignation. About the causes and consequences of what is happening — in the material of Izvestia.

The Hormuz Abyss

According to US media reports, the heads of key commands and high-ranking generals express serious doubts about the expediency of continuing a large-scale military operation against Iran. The Pentagon believes that prolonging the conflict poses a threat of depletion of American resources and reduces the ability of the United States to simultaneously respond to challenges in other regions of the world.

Photo: Global Look Press/U.S. Marines

According to official documents, as reported by the media, earlier representatives of the European, Indo-Pacific and Southern commands, as well as the leadership of the US Navy, warned Hegseth about the consequences of further escalation in the Middle East. The leading generals pointed out to the minister that over several months of active hostilities, stocks of anti-missiles and precision weapons had significantly decreased and the arsenals simply could not withstand a high "pace". However, the White House refused to publicly admit this: both Trump and Hegseth sharply criticized the leaks and continued to claim that the United States had plenty of weapons.

In addition, according to media reports, the heads of the commands noted an increase in the costs of the US Navy (which resulted in two castling of aircraft carrier groups in the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean and a number of ugly scandals). As a result, supply gaps forced the Pentagon to weaken groups in South and Southeast Asia.

Photo: REUTERS/Daniel Heuer

The controversy has intensified as the damage the US military is receiving in the Middle East has grown, such as the February 28 destruction of the US Fifth Fleet headquarters in Bahrain.

It should be noted that the American (mostly pro—democratic) media, on the eve of the by-elections to Congress, are particularly diligent in playing up to the negative attitude of the electorate towards aggression against Iran. So such a frequent occurrence of news about the split in the Pentagon fully corresponds to the context of the ongoing information war in the United States.

Five-star cleaning

However, this fact does not negate the revolution taking place in the structure of the Pentagon. The large-scale personnel restructuring (in fact, a personnel purge) initiated by Pete Hegseth's team continues.

In a short period of time, several high-ranking military personnel lost their positions at once, including the Chief of Staff of the US Army, General Randy George, the head of the Army Training and Transformation Command, David Hodne, and the chief chaplain of the US Army, William Green Jr. There are 24 generals and high—ranking commanders in total.

U.S. Army General Randy George

Photo: Global Look Press/Spc. Kourtney Nunnery/U.S Army

The official reasons for personnel decisions were not always disclosed. However, in the American media, they were linked, among other things, to disagreements about the reform of the army and the approaches of the Trump administration to conducting operations against Iran.

In fact, the relationship between the political leadership and part of the generals is gradually shifting from the traditional model of professional military autonomy under civilian control to a much more rigid system of political subordination, in which criticism of the administration's decisions is extremely painful, and personal loyalty becomes the decisive factor.

The resignation of Dan Driscoll

Special attention was drawn to the resignation of US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll, which was officially announced by the Pentagon on August 31. This solution stands out among others. Driscoll was considered one of the most prominent proponents of the technological modernization of the armed forces and enjoyed a reputation as a reformer.

He became the youngest Secretary of the Army in U.S. history. Since studying at Yale University, Driscoll has maintained close ties with representatives of the new generation of the American military-industrial complex, including Palantir executives Peter Thiel and Alex Karp. Moreover, he is considered a personal friend of Vice President J. D. Vance. Based, among other things, on the experience of the Ukrainian crisis, Driscoll advocated the accelerated introduction of drones and new technologies. As they say, the Pentagon even called him Drone Guy for this — "the guy with drones."

U.S. Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll

Photo: Global Look Press/Andrew Thomas

He also called for investment in young technological business projects capable of quickly creating solutions to modern conflicts, and did not particularly favor the largest contractors — Lockheed Martin, Boeing, RTX (Raytheon), General Dynamics and Northrop Grumman.

At the same time, Driscoll actively interacted with the press and regularly traveled abroad, which completely did not correspond to the traditional model of behavior of a person in his position.

Ukraine and the conflict

Driscoll became particularly famous after a trip to Kiev last November. There, he reportedly spoke very harshly to European representatives, saying that "it's time to end this shit" (quoted by the Financial Times).

The meaning of his position was that Ukraine was not moving towards victory, but, on the contrary, risked facing an even more severe defeat. According to Driscoll, Kiev should have agreed to the peace plan proposed by Trump, since the conditions put forward by Moscow in the future would turn out to be much worse.

The main reason for Driscoll's departure, however, is a protracted conflict with Pete Hegseth. The Minister of War allegedly emphasized the political component, preferring not to touch the existing industrial relations. In reality, it seems that Hegset is trying to protect the leading elite groups and the existing communications between them.

Photo: Global Look Press/Michael Runkel

The differences between Hegseth and Driscoll began to escalate after Trump instructed the Minister of the Army to engage in informal negotiations on the Ukrainian peace plan. Thus, Driscoll actually gained direct access to the president, bypassing Hegseth.

In the spring of 2026, he secured the departure of Army Chief of Staff General Randy George, who was considered an ally of Driscoll. Shortly after that, the Pentagon began to curtail the activities of the 173rd Airborne Brigade unit, which was engaged in the implementation of the experience of the war using UAVs.

Against this background, Driscoll's resignation does not look like a separate personnel decision, but another episode of a large-scale hardware struggle. The media noted that shortly before his departure, the Minister of the Army directly addressed Trump at a meeting at the White House. He expressed concern about the mass dismissals of the military and said that such a policy could prevent the armed forces from adapting to new conditions. According to The Atlantic, Trump, in turn, was surprised by the scale of the personnel losses presented to him.

Hegseth is on the edge anyway

So, if reports of disagreements between the command and the political leadership are confirmed, the Trump administration will face an extremely unpleasant situation: its own generals are actually warning the White House about the impossibility of indefinitely continuing the military operation against Iran without compromising the global combat readiness of the United States. Moreover, the chaos in the Ministry of War has actually become public knowledge — it simply makes no sense to deny its existence further after the resignation of the second person in the hierarchy.

Photo: Global Look Press/U.S. Army

The problem is compounded by the discussions surrounding the US military budget, which has not yet been approved by Congress. The Democrats will certainly use this circumstance to put pressure on the White House. If no agreement can be reached by October 1 (the beginning of the fiscal year), the Pentagon may face a shutdown and serious operational restrictions. Of course, Iran will take advantage of the situation.

At the same time, if the conflict within the Pentagon continues to develop, Hegseth himself may well be the next to be hit. The more hardware opponents and public negativity will be concentrated around the Minister of Defense, the more likely it is that he will ultimately bear political responsibility for what is happening. Moreover, the President of the United States has already publicly laid it on Hegseth in its entirety.