By Jarrett Renshaw and Idrees Ali
DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Delaware, July 22 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump attended a ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for four U.S. service members who returned to American soil in flag-draped caskets on Wednesday after being killed in Iranian attacks in the Middle East.
The ceremony, known as a “dignified transfer” of the bodies, comes amid growing frustration with the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran.
The war has cost U.S. taxpayers at least $37.5 billion, has led to the deaths of 18 U.S. service members and has killed thousands of Iranians.
Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have raised questions about the war, which has boosted global oil prices and shows no signs of ending. Since the war started in February, Trump has offered differing objectives for the conflict.
Trump, wearing a blue suit and red tie, stood at attention near the flight line and saluted as teams of seven service members solemnly carried each transfer case from the aircraft during the ceremony.
Family members, who arrived in a convoy of vans, watched from a short distance as the flag-draped transfer cases were carried off the aircraft one by one and placed in one of two vans.
“We’re going to honor them. For me it’s one of the hardest things to do as a president. But it has to be done,” Trump said before leaving for the ceremony.
Asked what he would tell the families of the fallen, Trump said: “All I’m going to say is, we love you. We love your child, and that’s what they are to them. They’re their children. There’s no games, no nothing.”
U.S. presidents, vice presidents and dignitaries regularly attend the solemn transfer ceremonies at Dover — home of the largest U.S. military mortuary — during times of war or conflict.
The three U.S. service members killed when an Iranian missile hit their sleeping barracks at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan on Friday were First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, 25, Sergeant Angel S. Rampersad, 28, and Private Isabella Gonzales, 19. All three were assigned to U.S. Army air defense brigades.
The fourth death, of Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton, 30, occurred on Sunday in a separate incident in Erbil, Iraq, during a controlled detonation of an attack drone.
A U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters that the number of injured U.S. troops was now well over 500. The Pentagon said on Monday that 100 service members have been injured since July 7 and 96% have returned to duty.
Four in five Americans expect the war to drag on for an extended period, according to a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll conducted this month. Some 37% of respondents approved of U.S. military strikes against Iran.
Trump’s approval rating has hovered near the lowest levels of his political career since the conflict began, with Republican strategists warning that rising living costs have neutralized the political benefits of his tax cuts.
Higher gas prices and cost-of-living concerns pose a political risk to Trump’s Republican Party ahead of November’s midterm elections, in which it risks losing its House majority and possibly its control of the Senate.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Don Durfee, Michael Perry, Chizu Nomiyama, Rod Nickel and Mark Porter)
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