{"id":561,"date":"2026-07-31T16:13:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:13:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=561"},"modified":"2026-07-31T16:13:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:13:17","slug":"maddowblog-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=561","title":{"rendered":"MaddowBlog"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Roughly a week into the U.S. war with Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a press briefing and took a moment to push back against reporting he disagreed with. The beleaguered Pentagon chief specifically said he\u2019d seen coverage that suggested the war in Iran \u201cmight be expanding\u201d beyond Iranian borders.<\/p>\n

Read more MaddowBlog<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cNothing could be further from the truth,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A week later, the former Fox News host tried to re-emphasize the same argument, telling reporters, \u201cIt\u2019s worth underscoring, I see in the media banners that say \u2018war expanding\u2019 or \u2018war spreading.\u2019 It\u2019s actually the opposite. It\u2019s actually quite contained.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even at the time, the rhetoric was difficult to take seriously. On the first day of the military offensive, the conflict involved three countries: The United States, Israel and Iran. By the sixth day of the war, The Washington Post noted that the violence had \u201ctouched 12 countries across the Middle East.\u201d<\/p>\n

This week, nearly five months after Hegseth insisted that the conflict was \u201cactually quite contained,\u201d neither \u201cexpanding\u201d nor \u201cspreading,\u201d his arguments from March appear tragically absurd. The New York Times reported:<\/p>\n

\n

A resurgence of fighting in the war with Iran is expanding the scope of the conflict across the Middle East and further threatening shipments of oil and other products crucial to the global economy.<\/p>\n

With little sign of peace talks resuming, a series of attacks, including two consecutive nights of strikes between Iran and the United States, ended a short period of relative calm \u2014 and entangled a growing list of U.S. allies in the conflict.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Jordan and Saudi Arabia, for example, have been targeted and are moving forward with plans to create a military coalition. Egypt this week was also affected for the first time, with a drone strike hitting an Egyptian port.<\/p>\n

Read more Trump\u2019s Saudi nuclear deal is corrupt and dangerous. Just ask Marco Rubio.<\/a><\/p>\n

This dovetailed with U.S. and Saudi forces conducting joint strikes on Iranian proxy forces in Iraq, which both expanded the geographic footprint of the conflict and marked Riyadh\u2019s first direct military entry into the war.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, we can keep going. This past weekend, Ukraine struck an Iranian commercial cargo ship in the Caspian Sea, sparking plans for a retaliatory attack that was called off after a flurry of diplomacy.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Reuters reported this week that Iran is in the process of rebuilding its defenses with missile launchers that Tehran recently purchased from China, despite Donald Trump\u2019s insistence that Beijing is \u201cnot participating\u201d in the conflict.<\/p>\n

Asked on Wednesday about that reporting, the American president \u2014 who has limitless access to one of the planet\u2019s most sophisticated intelligence operations \u2014 told reporters, \u201cWell, that would be surprising.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump, who has developed a reputation for showing weakness toward China, quickly added, \u201cI mean, things like that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether Hegseth continues to believe the conflict is \u201cactually quite contained\u201d and remains annoyed by headlines about an \u201cexpanding\u201d and \u201cspreading\u201d conflict is unclear.<\/p>\n

Read more Jay Clayton still hasn\u2019t taken office as DNI, leaving Senate Democrats worried<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the defense secretary said the conflict was \u201cactually quite contained,\u201d it was bizarre. Now it\u2019s worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":560,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\nMaddowBlog - Long Distance Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=561\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MaddowBlog - Long Distance Movers USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When the defense secretary said the conflict was \u201cactually quite contained,\u201d it was bizarre. 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