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Items tagged with: Hegseth
"This is a very stupid man who imagines he can—not just bully enemies as military strategy—but abuse allies and they’ll keep coming back for more.
Consider: Poor Donald Trump got a no from the UK’s Kier Starmer about joining the initial strikes on Iran and hesitated sending aircraft carriers to the region."
Steven Beschloss
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #stupidity #MalignantNarcissism
/2
americaamerica.news/p/the-stup…
The Stupidity of a Bully
When you abuse people and countries, they are unlikely to come running to help youSteven Beschloss (America, America)
"There are many ways a country can decline. It can become poorer and weaker or lose its alliances or its technological edge.
But there is another, more insidious form of decline: a country can become stupider.
That is what has happened to American policymaking under Donald Trump."
~ Julie Roginsky
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #stupidity #MalignantNarcissism
/1
saltypolitics.substack.com/p/t…
The Stupidification of American Policy
There is no plan -- just Trump's "gut"Julie Roginsky (Salty Politics with Julie Roginsky)
Secretary Of Defense Hegseth Promises Iranians ‘No Quarter’ – A War Crime
yahoo.com/news/articles/secret…
Secretary of Defense and former Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who has mocked “stupid rules of engagement” for U.S. service members, on Friday declared that Iranians under attack in Republican President Donald Trump’s war would receive “no quarter” — a war crime under the Geneva Conventions.
#Hegseth #WarCrime #NoQuarter #Iran #Pentagon #military #press #news
Has been just a matter of time for this bombaster.
Pete Hegseth Calls For ‘No Quarter’ For US Enemies In Apparent Violation of International Law
yahoo.com/news/articles/pete-h…
According to international humanitarian law, “’Directions to give no quarter’ was listed as a war crime in the Report of the Commission on Responsibility set up after the First World War.”
#Hegseth #NoQuarter #GenevaConvention #WarCrime #Pentagon #Republicans #Trump #Iran #press #news
This guy is so hard on the eyes...
Pentagon Chief Propagandist Hegseth Whines About Iran War Coverage, Demands “Patriotic Press” Instead
truthout.org/articles/hegseth-…
#Pentagon #Hegseth #propaganda #media #journalism #press #news #war #censorship #mediabias
Hegseth Whines About Iran War Coverage, Demands “Patriotic Press” Instead
The Defense Secretary also claimed Iran’s leaders were “underground,” despite video evidence showing otherwise.Chris Walker (Truthout)
I’m up for letting them jump the queue…
Boo fuckin' hoo!
#Trump #EricTrump
#Rubio
#Iran
#IranWar
#Epstein
#EpsteinFiles
#EpsteinFilesRelease
#USA
#USPolitics
#Hegseth
Robert Reich asks who’s getting the most out of Trump’s war. His list (it doesn't include the American people, by the way):
Pete Hegseth’s “Department of War”
Top military contractors
Larry Ellison’s Oracle
Elon Musk’s SpaceX
Peter Thiel’s Palantir Technologies
Big Oil
Jared Kushner
Vladimir Putin
#Trump #Putin #Hegseth #JaredKushner #ElonMusk #LarryEllison #PeterThiel #Iran #Israel #Russia #war #oil #gas
/9
robertreich.substack.com/p/sun…
Sunday thought: Who’s Winning from Trump’s War? Follow the Money
Trump, his biggest backers, and Vladimir PutinRobert Reich
"Undaunted, undistracted reporters do not aim to create 'balance' between lies and truth or between a pro-democracy party and a cult. Armed with facts, they can ferret out lies and hold the government accountable, which in turn preserves a free press, objective truth, and, therefore, democracy itself."
~ Jennifer Rubin
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #Minab #children #girls #school #TomahawkMissile
/2
"It was dogged reporting by U.S. and international journalists using open-source intelligence — 'geolocated videos, public statements from U.S. officials and the assessment of munitions experts' — that uncovered the growing evidence that it was the U.S. military that launched not one, but two Tomahawk missiles at the school."
~ Jennifer Schulze
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #Minab #children #girls #school #TomahawkMissile
/1
lincolnsquare.media/p/how-us-m…
How U.S. Media Uncovered the Truth about the Iran School Strike
Dogged investigative news reporting has revealed the U.S. role in the deadly school bombing—but you won't hear much about that from Trump-friendly media.Jennifer Schulze (Lincoln Square)
"The White House’s videos mixing football hits with bombing footage tell us: We have some twisted people running this country."
~ Michael Tomasky
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #cruelty #lethality #death #destruction #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/23
newsletter.tnr.com/index.php?a…
War and football? What kind of sick mind thinks that video is cool?
Fighting Words. What got me...newsletter.tnr.com
"This is Trump’s Derp State in action, an administration full of people who are not only ignorant and stupid, but believe that anyone who knows what they’re doing or tries to anticipate problems that might arise is a traitor to the cause. This is not something unique in history; authoritarian regimes are often characterized by the way they elevate idiots to positions of power."
~ Paul Waldman
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #authoritarianism #idiocy
/22
paulwaldman.substack.com/p/wel…
Welcome to the Derp State
The dumbest president, surrounded by the dumbest people, making the dumbest mistakes.Paul Waldman (The Cross Section)
Then:
"In a second incident, a terror suspect entered a Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) class at Old Dominion University and opened fire, killing Lt. Col. Brandon Shah, an ROTC instructor.
And:
"Finally, a hacker group linked to Iran infiltrated the computer systems of a US-based medical company."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #antisemitism #islamophobia
/12
"The reverberations of Trump’s illegal war reached America’s shores on Thursday in three separate attacks. Although the facts are still developing, it appears that the attacks were carried out by terrorists responding to the US war on Iran." Number one:
"The first attack targeted a Jewish synagogue, Temple Israel, in Detroit (West Bloomfield), Michigan."
Robert B. Hubbell
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #antisemitism #islamophobia
/11
Greg Olear notes that David Ignatius says Trump has now taken us over the waterfall:
"I think up until this point, all of the stuff that Trump has done, while horrifying and awful, is also reversible, with the right leadership in place, over time. This is not."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #Russia #Putin
/9
gregolear.substack.com/p/rambl…
Ramble On: Over the Waterfall
Morning thoughts on the Iran war, the Iraq war, and the end of American empire.Greg Olear (PREVAIL by Greg Olear)
As Aaron Rupar says, Peter Thiel's pal Alex Karp, Palantir CEO, loves the macho bluster of Trump's war, as he proclaims:
"What makes America special right now is our lethal capacities. Our ability to fight war."
The techbros, the broligarchy, are all in on the brutality, lethality, cruelty, and want credit for its technological base.
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #cruelty #lethality #death #destruction #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/8
As Aaron Parnas notes, Trump just posted the following on his Truth Social outfit:
"I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so."
War, wielding weapons, killing others with big booms, makes tiny men imagine they're big ones.
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #cruelty #lethality #death #destruction #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/7
"Now that Trump has his war, he doesn’t seem to know what to do with it. He appears to have had no plans in place for either the future or Iran or protection for the straits of Hormuz. Instead, the White House account on Twitter is posting videos that equate war with video games or football."
~ Joyce Vance
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #cruelty #lethality #death #destruction #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/6
joycevance.substack.com/p/thur…
Thursday in America
Justice Amy Coney Barrett was in conversation with the Chief Justice’s Counselor, Judge Robert M.Joyce Vance (Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance)
"War is BOOM BOOM, death raining from the sky, hell wrought on others from thousands of miles away by American soldiers with joysticks. The mangled bodies are not seen. They must be presumed."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #cruelty #lethality #death #destruction #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/5
"Never has any party in power shown such gloating bloodlust as Trump and his dimwitted amoral ideologues are, with their infernal infotainment.
On TikTok and X they are peddling short videos romanticizing the war, glorifying cruelty."
~ Gene Weingarten
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #cruelty #lethality #death #destruction #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/4
geneweingarten.substack.com/p/…
War Porn
In the 1960s, there was no shortage of pro-war propaganda in the United States aimed at young men, even in comic books — but not the image above or anything quite so nakedly and revoltingly … political.gene weingarten (The Gene Pool)
(continued from /2)
"caused the military to lose focus on its main task, killing the enemy, and led to costly defeats in both wars.
In his view, the U.S. military’s strength is not rooted in its high ideals, humanity or moral purpose, but rather its ability to punish adversaries. Anything that distracts from that singular mission, he has said, is weakness."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #cruelty #lethality #death #destruction #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/3
"Even though the truth was often more complicated, they cast U.S. troops as liberators bringing democracy and freedom to those living under tyranny and oppression.
Mr. Hegseth has largely dispensed with that talk. His bellicose, at times vengeful, rhetoric reflects his belief that the United States’ lofty goals in Iraq and Afghanistan" (continued in /3)
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #cruelty #lethality #death #destruction #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/2
Greg Jaffe reports on how the choice of “'Epic Fury,' a name that connotes retribution and rage," to name Trump's war captures its deliberate intent to maximize brutality and lethality.
"For decades, presidents and their secretaries of defense have framed American military interventions in altruistic terms."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #cruelty #lethality #death #destruction #violence #PerformativeMasculinity
/1
"The only major American news outlet that I’ve seen calling for an end to war in its editorials is… actually British. It’s the Guardian. And even they were pretty meek about it."
~Dan Froomkin
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #media
/4
criticalread.substack.com/p/st…
STOP THE WAR! How hard is that for an editorial board to say?
A survey of what editorials are saying, and a plea for them to say moreDan Froomkin (Press Watch)
"And you have Mark Zuckerberg who is a conservative mega-billionaire. And Meta is, you know, with Facebook and Instagram, one of the most important information platforms. And Elon Musk owns Twitter. And all of the kind of biggest information channels are now controlled by conservative billionaires."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #media #LarryEllison #DavidEllison #JeffBezos #MarkZuckerberg #billionaires
/3
"But now you have this takeover by a bunch of conservative billionaires of all of the key major institutions. So David Ellison, who is a big friend of Trump's and his father, Larry Ellison, they're going to control TikTok and CNN and all kinds of other media properties. And you have Jeff Bezos, who owns the Washington Post and has turned it much more conservative than it used to be."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #media #LarryEllison #DavidEllison #JeffBezos #billionaires
/2
Noting that Pete Hegseth has just attacked CNN and said that Larry Ellison should take it over, Paul Waldman says,
"What we're seeing now, and I think that comment that Hegseth made is really revealing, is that just in the last few years, there was always corporate media and there are ways in which it was very conservative, despite what conservatives say about it."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #media #billionaires
/1
publicnotice.co/p/nir-and-rupa…
Nir & Rupar: Paul Waldman on Trump's Iran debacle
We unpack why the war is the least popular in history.Aaron Rupar (Public Notice)
Rights groups have slammed Pete Hegseth for saying that “no quarter” will be shown to Iran.
"No quarter" includes executing people who've surrendered.
The mere announcement from a govt official can be a war crime.
Such threats are illegal under the Hague Convention & US domestic laws & military manuals.
Hegseth has publicly claimed he would not abide by “stupid rules of engagement”.
aljazeera.com/news/2026/3/14/a…
#USPol #EUPol #islamophobia #USWarCrimes #news #Hegseth .
Analysts say US threat of ‘no quarter’ for Iran violates international law
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said there would be ‘no quarter, no mercy’ as US continues to pummel Iran.Brian Osgood (Al Jazeera)
"Meanwhile, the American military is now telling the New York Times that, far from collapsing, the Iranian regime is adapting to the Israeli–American onslaught and finding our weaknesses."
#Trump #Hegseth #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #Netanyahu #Iran #war
/23
"Iran has so far achieved its two most important strategic objectives. The regime has passed its first continuity test, transferring power from one supreme leader to the next. And it has closed the strait, setting in motion a cascade of economic consequences which will sap America’s political will to continue fighting."
#Trump #Hegseth #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #Netanyahu #Iran #war
/22
"It should not surprise you that the same team which invited a reporter into a Signal chat about war plans a few months ago have been blindsided by the Iranian regime’s resilience.
After less than two weeks, regime change is off the table and even the Israeli military understands that the Islamic Republic isn’t going away anytime soon."
~ Jonathan V. Last
#Trump #Hegseth #JaredKushner #SteveWitkoff #Netanyahu #Iran #war
/21
thebulwark.com/p/dire-straits-…
Dire Straits: The Iran War Is Run by Idiots
Also: Americans don't care about process. So they will get corruption.Jonathan V. Last (The Bulwark)
"Look how the Great Satan is slaughtering our children &laughing about it.
Hegseth’s videos will be useful to Iran as the IRGC exploits nationalistic and religious sentiments among terrorists. Iran will use Hegseth’s hubris against us, and the danger will not be limited to war zones. As we learned on 9-11, jihadist groups are the main perpetrators of suicide attacks worldwide, & Hegseth is goading them into action."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #Islam #HolyWar #jihad #ChristianNationalism
/13
"These Muslim forces believe 'jihad,' or armed struggle, is the highest form of religious devotion, one that offers a guaranteed path to salvation and atonement, which the IRGC reinforces through steady indoctrination. The IRGC will likely use Hegseth’s rhetoric and video game posts as recruitment tools:"
~ Sabrina Haake
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #Islam #HolyWar #jihad #ChristianNationalism
/12
sabrinahaake.substack.com/p/he…
Hegseth's immaturity will be useful to Iran
A base near Erbil, Iraq, on February 12, 2026.Sabrina Haake (The Haake Take)
"Screw negotiations. Screw soft power like USAID and VOA. Screw partnering with allies. What matters most to them is making the biggest booms. ...
If you can’t answer 'What is my ultimate goal?' and estimate the cost of achieving it, then all the big booms are useless if not counterproductive."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #PerformativeMasculinity #violence #arrogance #hubris
/39
"Trump and Hegseth seem to be in love with what they think of as their Big Boy Toys. Supreme excellence in their minds seems to be blowing things up better than anyone else can blow things up. We can blow up more things than anyone else. We can blow things into smaller pieces than anyone else can. We can blow up things from a greater distance than anyone else can."
~ Peterr
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #PerformativeMasculinity #violence #arrogance #hubris
/38
emptywheel.net/2026/03/12/grea…
Great Tactics Mean Nothing if You Have No Strategy - emptywheel
Take it from Clausewitz or Sun Tzu or even Jesus of Nazareth: strategy matters. Too bad for all of us that Trump and Hegseth don't get this.Peterr (emptywheel)
(continued from /36)
"Do you support internment camps for undocumented immigrants where they should be rounded up until they can be deported? Even when we put that language into a question, we've got a majority of Republicans [and white evangelicals] now saying, yeah, I'm down with that."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #HolyWar #WhiteChristianNationalism #WhiteEvangelicals #ICE #immigrants #EthnicCleansing #ConcentrationCamps
/37
"And this is the America that we're living in, that we literally are having internment camps. And we've polled on this. And what we're finding is that, again, it's a majority of Republicans and a super majority of white evangelical Christians who actually, even when we say to them, internment camps," (continued in /37)
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #HolyWar #WhiteChristianNationalism #WhiteEvangelicals #ICE #immigrants #EthnicCleansing #ConcentrationCamps
/36
Then Robbie adds:
"The big, beautiful bill, let's just make sure everybody remembers, has got money already in it for like $50,000 plus beds at internment camps that they're already trying to open all over the country, probably one coming to an abandoned warehouse near you."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #HolyWar #WhiteChristianNationalism #WhiteEvangelicals #ICE #immigrants #EthnicCleansing #ConcentrationCamps
/35
Robbie replies:
"Well, you know, I do tend to use those words all together, right? White Christian nationalism, because that really is the only way to understand what it is in our context, right? Now, there is religious nationalism in other parts of the world, but in America—our issue is white Christian nationalism."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #HolyWar #WhiteChristianNationalism
/34
" Within Democratic circles, mainstream circles, corporate media circles, they are averse to using the word white Christian nationalism because, number one, they don't want to piss off Christians. And number two, they don't want to piss off white. I say, no, no, no. The data says that this is a white Christian nationalist problem."
#Trump #Hegseth #Iran #war #HolyWar #WhiteChristianNationalism
/33