The Pentagon announced Tuesday that 50 – not 34 – US troops sustained various levels of brain injury from Tehran’s strike on Iraqi bases earlier this month. One expert explained to Sputnik that the Trump administration’s decision to trickle out this information is just a continuation of a series of lies from the White House regarding Iran. Ben Norton, a journalist with The Grayzone and co-host of the Moderate Rebels podcast, joined Radio Sputnik’s Loud and Clear via phone from Managua, Nicaragua, on Wednesday to discuss the Pentagon’s latest report of a 16-person increase in casualties and provide his argument on why the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ (IRGC) January 8 strike was a prime showing of deterrence by Tehran.