In the days leading up to the U.S. military offensive in Iran, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth must have been quite busy. The logistical challenges associated with an aggressive bombing campaign in the Middle East are enormous, and it stands to reason that the mission dominated the Pentagon chief’s time and attention.
There were signs, however, that Hegseth’s focus was elsewhere. In fact, he spent much of last week distancing the Defense Department from some of the nation’s leading universities while whining about “wokeness,” feuding with Anthropic over artificial intelligence safeguards and, the day before the war began, forcing Scouting America to abandon programs and policies aimed at promoting diversity.
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On Monday morning, however, the beleaguered and woefully unqualified secretary had a fresh opportunity to show the public that he’s capable of leading the Pentagon during a major military conflict, when he hosted a press conference ostensibly to make the administration’s case for war.
It did not go well. The New Republic reported:
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth basically admitted during a press conference Monday that he doesn’t care about military rules of engagement, and is grateful that Israel doesn’t either.
‘Israel has clear missions as well for which we are grateful. Capable partners, as we’ve said since the beginning, capable partners are good partners, unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force,’ Hegseth said, scoffing at America’s allies in Europe as well as international law meant to minimize civilian casualties and prevent war crimes.
Moments later, the secretary, who has an unfortunate record related to his dismissive attitude toward war crimes, derided “stupid rules of engagement.”
It was not the only example of Hegseth showing just how unprepared he was for prime time. In fact, during the same relatively short briefing, the Pentagon chief suggested the Trump administration didn’t start the war it started, took some time to whine about Joe Biden and said in response to weapons that killed American service members, “Every once in a while you might have a squirter that makes its way through.”
What the secretary did not do was the one thing he needed to do: make a coherent case for the conflict. As The New Republic’s Greg Sargent summarized, in reference to Hegseth, “He wouldn’t say whether American troops will face combat. He offered confusing depictions of our objectives, seemingly suggesting they’re about depriving Iran of ‘offensive capabilities’ that remain hazily defined. He declared that ‘this is not a so-called regime change war’ while hailing Trump’s success thus far at … regime change.”
Expectations were low headed into Monday morning, but Hegseth nevertheless struggled to clear a bar that hovered near the floor. What the nation needed was a capable defense secretary; what Americans saw was a former Fox News host who was in over his head.
As the bombs began falling, The Washington Post reported that within the Defense Department, there were intensifying fears about the administration’s policy and its consequences. If Hegseth set out to allay those fears, he failed spectacularly.
