U.S. Representative Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) said early Thursday that the ongoing war with Iran has demonstrated the United States military “cannot sustain a war” and failed to defend its own bases, intelligence assets and allies against what he described as a “second rate” adversary, calling for an overhaul of American defense strategy nearly six months into the conflict.
The Post
Lieu, a member of the House Judiciary Committee and a colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, made the remarks in a post on X published at 1:42 a.m. on August 27, 2026. The full post read:
“We need a new defense strategy. The Iran War showed that the U.S. military cannot sustain a war and could not defend: -Our military bases -Our intelligence assets -Our allies And this was against a second rate Iranian military.”
The post was published in direct response to reporting from NBC News, which found that Iran had inflicted billions of dollars in damage on U.S. intelligence infrastructure across the Middle East, with the war continuing nearly six months after it began with no resolution in sight.
The Reporting That Prompted The Post
According to the NBC News report, citing four unnamed sources, Iranian drones and missiles struck intelligence posts and surveillance hardware across the Middle East on a scale described as more extensive than any damage previously endured by U.S. spy agencies. The outlet reported the damage is expected to cost billions of dollars to repair.
A CIA station in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, was struck by Iranian drones in March, a strike previously reported by Reuters, and a separate CIA facility in eastern Iraq was also targeted during the conflict. Sources told NBC that additional intelligence sites had been hit but declined to detail those strikes further. U.S. officials have also been investigating whether Russia supplied Iran with drone technology or targeting assistance.
The Cost Of The War
The war, which began when the United States and Israel jointly attacked Iran on February 28, 2026, has already cost the U.S. tens of billions of dollars, according to the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress last month that the conflict had cost $37.5 billion to that point, while arguing that an additional $67 billion in funding was needed to continue operations. Pentagon officials reportedly told lawmakers in March that the first six days of the war alone cost more than $11.3 billion.
The U.S. military has expended nearly all of its stockpiled long-range precision missiles, according to reporting from CBS News this month. President Donald Trump has insisted the U.S. still maintains “massive amounts” of weapons, but he reportedly confronted Hegseth earlier this month over the apparent shortage, telling him he believed the problem “had been fixed.”
The war has also rippled through the broader U.S. economy. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz triggered spikes in global fuel prices, with the national average price of gasoline standing at $4.10 per gallon as of Wednesday, up from $2.98 per gallon in the days before the war began, according to AAA. The Pentagon has said the conflict has resulted in the deaths of 18 U.S. service members and wounded hundreds more.
Iran has suffered extensive damage of its own. The U.S. has said it has targeted more than 13,000 locations across the country, launching waves of strikes over several consecutive nights. “The navy’s gone, the air force is gone, the leadership is gone,” Trump said in an interview this month, adding that the deaths of Iranian leaders had complicated diplomacy because “nobody knows who’s leading.”
On Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled new sanctions against Iran after Trump vowed to impose what he called an “economic D-Day.” Iran’s currency, the rial, fell to a record low against the U.S. dollar ahead of the measures. Thousands of people in Iran have been killed during the months-long conflict, according to HRANA, a U.S.-based human rights organization.
A Recurring Warning From Lieu
Thursday’s post was not the first time Lieu has raised alarm over the state of U.S. defense readiness during the war. On May 2, 2026, responding to a CNN investigation detailing “unprecedented destruction” at U.S. military sites across the Middle East, Lieu wrote on X that the conflict carried broader implications beyond Iran:
“The Iran war shows we need a new defense strategy against China and Russia. 1. If Iran—a second rate military—can significantly damage U.S. bases, this means China or Russia can obliterate our overseas bases. 2. U.S. will run out of defensive munitions against China and Russia.”
Lieu has also gone on record opposing the administration’s handling of the conflict through official channels. On March 5, 2026, he issued a statement after voting in favor of H.Con.Res. 38, a War Powers Resolution directing the president to remove U.S. armed forces from what the resolution described as unauthorized hostilities in Iran. In that statement, Lieu said: “Our brave service members are executing dangerous missions against the Iranian regime. At least six U.S. servicemembers have been killed and many more seriously wounded. My prayers are for the families of the servicemembers who died, for the servicemembers who were seriously wounded, and for all servicemembers who are in harms’ way. The Administration must ensure our servicemembers, and all Americans, are safe from retaliatory attacks by the Iranian regime and its proxies.”
A day earlier, on March 4, 2026, Lieu joined Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) in leading a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging the State Department to help Americans stranded in the Middle East return to the United States as the conflict escalated.
No Clear End In Sight
Nearly six months into the war, multiple diplomatic efforts have failed to produce a lasting resolution, with control over navigation through the Strait of Hormuz emerging as a central sticking point between the two sides. Recent polling suggests the conflict remains broadly unpopular with the American public. According to an AP-NORC survey released in late July, just 28 percent of American adults approved of Trump’s handling of the Iran war, down from 34 percent the month before.
Lieu’s Thursday post adds to a growing chorus of congressional voices questioning whether the U.S. military’s overseas posture, munitions stockpiles and base defenses are adequate for a prolonged conflict against a far more capable adversary than Iran. As of Thursday morning, neither the White House nor the Department of Defense had issued a public response to Lieu’s remarks.