{"id":1423,"date":"2026-07-25T02:59:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T02:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1423"},"modified":"2026-07-25T02:59:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T02:59:17","slug":"pentagon-says-some-servicemember-deaths-dont-count-in-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/?p=1423","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon Says Some Servicemember Deaths Don’t Count in Iran War"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Pentagon<\/div>

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\n\tSoldiers die in war. But ever since the death toll in Vietnam broke a generation\u2019s appetite for war, the American public has been uniquely sensitive to casualty counts as a result of our military actions abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tWe venerate fallen servicemembers as heroes, no matter how just the conflict they died in was. But now, Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s administration is reportedly trying to say that some deaths don\u2019t count.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOn Thursday, the Pentagon\u2019s official roll of servicemember deaths as a result of the Iran war<\/a> suddenly changed, with four names dropping off the list, bringing the total number from 18 down to 14. The<\/em> New York Times<\/em> reported<\/a> that the change came as a result of a direct action, with the Trump administration declaring that four servicemembers who were killed last weekend at bases in Jordan and Iraq don\u2019t count toward the tally of deaths in the Iran conflict, as they occurred after he had declared the conflict to be at a ceasefire in late April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThis kind of paradoxical, absurdist logic is core<\/a> to the administration\u2019s messaging on the Iran war. We are at war, but not technically at war<\/a>, because there is a cease fire. However, neither side has ceased firing; four American soldiers just died. However, because there was a cease fire, their deaths cannot be attributed to the Iran war, which is not technically an active conflict, despite the conflict being very active.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tA military spokesperson told the Times<\/em> that the site would soon be fixed to reflect the true casualty numbers, blaming \u201ctemporary data disruptions\u201d for the change \u2014 despite multiple military officials claiming the change had been requested by the administration.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs of Friday afternoon, the website still listed only 14 deaths<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTrump has repeatedly compared<\/a> his war in Iran to Vietnam and other past wars, in an effort to dismiss concerns about the death toll. The president has emphasized that his casualty numbers in a less than six-month-old war are lower than conflicts which dragged on for multiple years. The Pentagon has admitted that the U.S. has suffered over 100 casualties since July 7 of this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\tChanging the numbers on a Pentagon website does little to change the administration\u2019s overall tenor on the war. Throughout the conflict, Trump has repeatedly asserted his right to pursue any and all military objectives with unilateral power. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said he should be praised for it<\/a>, despite the fact that the war is now universally unpopular. The only concession Trump has offered to the public\u2019s distaste for the war is to repeatedly say<\/a> that it is almost over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn reality, the war will continue for as long as Trump wants it to, an open wound on the global economy and the safety and security of the entire region. The Iranian people, of course, will bear the brunt of this violence. Trump has vowed to blow up civilian infrastructure like bridges and power plants if Iran continues striking ships in the Strait of Hormuz.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\t\tTrending Stories<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n

\n\t\u201cFrom this point forward, any time the Islamic Republic of Iran shoots at a ship in the Strait of Hormuz, whether it be by Missile, Rocket, Drone, or any other device or weapon, the United States will bomb and destroy ONE BRIDGE OR POWER PLANT,\u201d Trump posted<\/a> this week on Truth Social. Intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure is a war crime<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s telling, too, what Trump\u2019s red line is: shooting at the oil tankers that attempt to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. The soldiers\u2019 lives, well \u2014 those are expendable. And if the numbers get too high, he can just make some of them disappear.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Soldiers die in war. But ever since the death toll in Vietnam broke a generation\u2019s appetite for war, the American public has been uniquely sensitive to casualty counts as a result of our military actions abroad.\u00a0 We venerate fallen servicemembers as heroes, no matter how just the conflict they died in was. But now, Donald…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1424,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/trump-iran-war-death-toll.jpg?w=1600&h=900&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[2827,2168,2826,126,1464,2825,1556],"class_list":["post-1423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-count","tag-deaths","tag-dont","tag-iran","tag-pentagon","tag-servicemember","tag-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1423"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1423\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1423"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1423"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/valutednews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1423"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}