The Illusion of Victory: Performance, Power, and Pete Hegseth’s War Narrative

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, speaking in the Oval Office about the War in Iran, reminds one of the 1996 movie Independence Day, where the actor Bill Pullman gave that final defiant and inspiring speech to the troops, rallying them to defeat the alien scourge, but the War in Iran is not a war of survival or in response to an imminent threat or even a recent attack.

He often appears in a one-size-too-small suit, more akin to being a suitor in an episode of “The Bachelorette.”

Hegseth’s briefings are so intensely performative that even the so-called “Obliterated Enemy”, Iran, put up their own version of our SECDEF in a video designed to mercilessly mock the Secretary.

There is performance, and then there is substance. As to the substance of Hegseth’s speech, he portrays Iran as being almost a superpower, falsely claiming that it has a modern Navy, Air Defense, modern Air Force, and modern military overall. His boasting of US supremacy in obliterating Iran’s forces is akin to an adult beating up a child, and then raising his own fist high in triumph.

In truth, Iran’s air force was no match for the US’s overwhelming technological prowess. Military experts agreed that Iran’s military was in a weakened state before the war, with an aging fleet of aircraft, mostly grounded, a navy designed for coastal defense, and a limited offensive capability centered in and around the Strait of Hormuz as an antagonizing force, but in no way capable of fighting the US conventionally.

The fact that the U.S. Air Force has easily and systematically defeated Iran’s air defenses and Air Forces, taking out radar installations and blowing up its aging fleet of aircraft primarily parked on the ground, was no surprise and not even a fair fight. Iran’s Air Force basically never left the ground, giving the US full air superiority. There were no classic dogfights between aircraft, no open sea naval battles, and no tank battles, but only the bombing of stationary targets. In effect, our claim of “Victory” is hollow at best and even laughable. Yes, our military did its job, god bless them, but without a clear strategy, what comes next now that Iran is using its asymmetric supremacy in a war of attrition with the US and Israel, deploying thousands of cheap but effective drones. (White House Statement and claims of victory)

Hegseth’s Thought Process & Beliefs

The origins of Pete Hegseth’s so-called “Warrior Ethos,” “Take no prisoners,” and “No Quarter” language are complicated. Pete followed the traditional infantry route after joining the Army’s 101st Airborne Division, rising through the ranks during two tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan. After leaving active duty, he transitioned into the National Guard and was assigned to help secure the United States presidential inauguration of Joe Biden, as unbelievable as that seems with what we now know about his political leanings.

It was during this Washington D.C. duty that another service member flagged Pete after seeing his controversial tattoos, one being “Deus Vult” or “God wills it”. This phrase originated from the Crusades as a rallying cry. Another of his tattoos is a Jerusalem Cross or the five wounds of Christ, also linked to the Crusades. Two more tattoos, the cross and sword, and the Infidel in Arabic script, are a defiant symbol toward the enemy. He was subsequently removed from the security detail over fears of his possible extremist views based on his many tattoos that are often associated with modern extremist groups. Hegseth ended up leaving the military, honorably, but with a bad taste in his mouth from the controversy.

With Hegseth’s history of invoking the name of god during the current war with Iran, as well as his Crusade-style tattoos, many feel uncomfortable as he heads the Defense Department in a war with an Islamic nation, dredging up memories of the 13th and 14th-century Crusades, where Christians slaughtered Muslims.

As a result of Pete’s sour feelings toward the military at the end of his career, and the JAG Corps, or as he often calls them, “The JAGOFFs, it is easy to understand, at least from his point of view, why he fired all or most of the JAGs once he became Secretary of Defense. There’s an attitude and tone of “I’ll show them” in all of his public comments.

Hegseth’s views of war are stark and cold in terms of how we treat the enemy. His recent “No Quarter, No Mercy” speech was not only ruthless, but may very well have set him up for a war crimes trial at some point in the future, as he challenged the Laws of Armed Conflict (LOAC). To declare “No Quarter” is illegal by every standard going back to the Geneva and the Hague Conventions.

His comments are more of a “Kill everyone” order that is clearly illegal, where he sets the stage for and encourages our younger impressionable troops to engage in unnecessary killing, eliminating the possibility of surrender, and undermining the longstanding and widely accepted humanitarian protections in war.

This “kill them all” attitude was most recently and flagrantly displayed in the wanton killings of 150 to 160 people in 46 strikes of boats in the Caribbean as so-called “Narco Terrorists”, with no warning, no boarding, no search of the boats, but to sink them and kill the crews in cold blood, even double-tapping one boat with survivors hanging onto a partially sunken boat. It is striking that no one was ever taken into custody, and no evidence was ever provided as proof that these boats carried any drugs or were engaged in activities that directly threatened the US.

Pete Hegseth’s seemingly newfound religious fervor is in stark contrast to how he has appeared to have lived his life with several wives and girlfriends during his marriages, and accusations of heavy drinking. He’s also been accused of malfeasance while managing two nonprofits with wild parties, drinking, and carousing. He’s vehemently denied these accusations of any wrongdoing, but did promise to stop drinking if confirmed as SECDEF.

Hegseth, like his boss, President Trump, wants to exert his power and show everyone that he’s the boss with these performative briefings, the banning of legitimate press from the Pentagon (recently overturned in court), and the tone he takes with the press when asked completely legitimate questions about casualties during this war of choice. He even attacked one of the best military journalists in the business, Fox News’ own Jennifer Griffin, a former colleague of Hegseth, for asking a question about the claims of success in “Midnight Hammer”, the B2 mission that supposedly obliterated Iran’s nuclear program. If the nuclear program had been obliterated as Hegseth and the President claimed at the time, there would have been no need for the current “Excursion,” as Trump calls it.

Author’s Note

Pete Hegseth is in over his head. He has no qualifications to be the SECDEF, having never served in a leadership role that would have provided him with the relevant experience and skills required to lead our military and the Defense Department with a $1 trillion budget and those precious lives in his hands.

He reminds me of some of the other officers I knew while serving in the first Gulf War, while stationed in Turkey, managing a fleet of combat aircraft. Some of these men seemed to have a feeling of hatred toward the enemy (This was not Pearl Harbor), seeming almost gleeful at the thought of killing the foes before us in Iraq. Sitting around talking while having a beer in the days and weeks leading up to the start of the war in January of 1991, moods changed. Some of my fellow officers were a little nervous, some stoic, some silent, but some, like Pete Hegseth, were anxious to, in their words, “Get It On” and take the war to those “A rabs” as they called the Iraqis at the time. These more aggressive officers displayed the same childlike giddiness at the thought of going to war as does our current wannabe G.I. Joe in charge of the Pentagon, who named himself the Secretary of War. This is not the attitude of a seasoned, measured SECDEF.

Hegseth comes across as a vengeful, disgusting warmonger who may be guilty of war crimes when all is said and done. By firing the JAGs, or as he calls them, “The Roadblocks”, he eliminated the very people who would have advised our military on the legality of certain operations, such as the killing of 165 Iranian schoolgirls in a mistaken strike by our Tomahawk Cruise Missile. His comment of “No Quarter” is his own admission of a crime. There is a misplaced anger of unknown origin, his public demeanor with rumors of worse behavior in private, where he’s threatened to polygraph members of the Joint Chiefs.

Put simply, Pete Hegseth is unfit for duty.