‘We’re just getting started,’ Hegseth says on Iran as Senate blocks efforts to limit war powers
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The US-Israel war against Iran escalated on Wednesday, when US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that the United States is winning and that its troops can fight as long as needed.
“Our air defenses and those of our allies have a lot of airspace. We can easily fight this war as long as we need,” he said.
Hegseth’s comments came as he confirmed that a US submarine had sunk an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka, killing at least 87 people.
“We have just started hunting, demolishing, disarming, destroying and defeating their abilities, there are four days left,” he said.
At the same time, the US aGen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the US “will act now begin to expand inland, encroach further into Iranian territory and create more freedom to direct US forces.”
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said a US submarine had sunk an Iranian warship, saying his country was ‘winning the war on Iran.’ But the White House is struggling with its messaging about why it started the war in the first place. Former US State Department official Andrew Miller says that is a ‘characteristic’ of the Trump administration.
Expand access
The development came as the powerful son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, emerged as the frontrunner to succeed him, suggesting Tehran was reluctant to apply pressure five days after the US and Israel launched a military campaign that killed hundreds and rattled global markets.
In a sign of the escalating conflict, Hegseth said a US submarine strike hit an Iranian ship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, thousands of kilometers from the Persian Gulf, during a battle with crippled ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz for a fifth day, cutting off vital Middle Eastern oil and gas flows.
The US and Israel have continued their round-the-clock attacks on Iran, where Hegseth says the United States dominates.
“This wasn’t meant to be a fair fight, and it’s not a fair fight. We’re beating them to the ground,” Hegseth, sounding very confident, told a briefing at the Pentagon.
But he acknowledged that Iran could still launch a missile attack as the US tries to control the country’s airspace.
Caine added that US service members “are always at risk, and we have to be aware that the risk is still high.”
An American submarine sank an Iranian warship off the southern coast of Sri Lanka, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed at a Pentagon briefing. Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath said 180 people were on board. Of those, at least 87 have died, and more than 30 have been rescued. CORRECTION (Mar. 4, 2026): An earlier version of this video showed Hegseth describing the incident as the first time since World War II that a submarine sank an enemy ship with a torpedo. In fact, a British submarine sank the Argentinian ship Belgrano with torpedoes in 1982.
The Senate voted down Trump’s impeachment efforts
A few hours later, the latest attempt by Democrats and several Republicans in the US Senate to restore the deployment of foreign troops by US President Donald Trump failed.
“Today every senator — every single one — is going to pick a side,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said before the vote. “Do you stand with the American people who are tired of perpetual wars in the Middle East or do you stand with Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth as they blast us into another war?”
The majority of the Senate supported Trump’s military campaign against Iran, voting to block a bipartisan resolution to stop the air war and require that any adversaries against Iran be authorized by Congress.
The vote in the 100-member Senate was 53 to 47 to not advance the resolution, largely along party lines, with nearly all Republicans voting against the process and nearly all Democrats supporting it.
Military Power Solution
The War Powers Resolution (WPR) of 1973 acts as a check on presidential power.
Under the WPR, the president can only commit troops to armed conflict when Congress has declared war or given specific authority, or in response to an attack on US territory or its military. It requires the president to report regularly to Congress, which the administration began doing on Monday.
The resolution also requires unauthorized military actions to be ended within 60 days unless the deadline is extended.
It provides a process for Congress to withdraw troops from the conflict, and members of both parties have said they plan to vote on the legislation this week.
Such a vote is unlikely to get the two-thirds majority needed to overturn Trump, but some lawmakers say it would make electoral history.
Some legal experts say popular opposition could be a major check on Trump’s ability to continue the attack.
