As the Gaza war bled into the Iran conflict with almost no sustained period of peace, reports suggest that nearly 750 troops have been killed or wounded in service in the Middle East since Oct. 2023. What sets the Donald Trump administration apart from its predecessors is the growing accusation that it is engaging in a “casualty cover-up.”
During President Joe Biden’s tenure in 2024, the administration provided the media with detailed accounts of attacks on U.S. bases in the Middle East. That included specifics on which outposts were hit, the type of strikes used, up-to-date casualty reports, and even aggregate counts of attacks by country. That level of transparency used to be standard practice. Under the Trump administration, it has changed drastically.
