The Pentagon is looking at sending more troops now because of new intelligence about possible Iranian attacks in the region, Rood explained.

“We’re concerned about the threat stream that we’re seeing and I would note we’re going to come to brief the committee in closed session in a week on that very topic,” he said, without describing the intelligence the military has received. “It is possible that we would need to adjust our force posture, and I think that would be a prudent step based on what we observe.”

Asked about a Wall Street Journal report on the possible deployments, Rood called it an “erroneous item” since “we haven’t made a decision to deploy an additional 14,000 troops.” But the article said only that such a deployment was under consideration, not that it had been decided upon, as Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) hammered home to Rood in subsequent questioning. The article also reported that officials are examining a range of options, with 14,000 troops at the higher end.

Last night, Pentagon spokesperson Alyssa Farah tweeted about the article, “the reporting is wrong. The U.S. is not considering sending 14,000 additional troops to the Middle East.”

"You're telling me now that she misspoke," Hawley said, telling Rood that he was directly contradicting her comment.

Pressed to explain his criticism of the article and Farah’s statement given his testimony that additional deployments are under consideration, Rood wouldn’t clarify whether he took issue with the 14,000 number or with how the article portrayed the seriousness of the consideration being given to the deployment.

“There isn’t some pending document with the secretary of Defense that states, ‘Deploy 14,000 troops, do you approve, yes or no?’” he said, prompting Hawley to call for Esper to make his own public statement clarifying the issue.