US Defence secretary Hegseth's indecent boasts

The man who in a briefing to reporters boasted of “Death and destruction (falling) from the sky all day long,” on Iranians, and demonstrated no scruples at all in describing the nature of the conflict in the Middle East, insisted that “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they're down, which is exactly how it should be,” and is the same unsuccessful TV host whose mother, Penelope, dismissed in the harshest way possible. Said the mother: “You are an abuser of women – that is the ugly truth, and I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around, and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.” It is in the tremulous hands of this same Mr Hegseth that President Trump has placed the US war machine in all its fearsome capabilities.

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Mr Hegseth is a deeply flawed man; but so, too, is his boss, President Trump, whose mother Mary Anne MacLeod allegedly said of him: “What kind of a son have I created?” With both 'broken' men aggressively reframing American foreign policy in ways that isolate and demean their country, it is unsurprising that they have plunged the US into needless, incoherent conflicts across continents. Worse, both men are irredeemable. They may have achieved their limited objectives in Venezuela, Ukraine, and elsewhere, and may yet astoundingly defeat Iranian arms, it is, however, clear that their irrational approach to foreign policy will inevitably diminish America and make the world less safe for everyone. Though Iran had it coming, with its entire leadership up to the second and in some instances third layer decapitated, there has been no convincing justification for plunging the Middle East into avoidable turmoil and spooking the world economy.

The US Defence secretary is widely regarded as incompetent, dishonest and theatrical. Those views of him have been reinforced by his press briefings in which he celebrates the targeted killing of Iranian leaders and security chiefs. His unpalatable views have also been undergirded by a number of vices, including his misbegotten comparisons of the US-Iranian war with the Crusades, his undisguised and unapologetic preference for Christian and White nationalism, not to say his heedless and inexplicable resort to Christianising the war as one between evil and good. In the name of Christianity, he glorifies the ongoing campaign and the killings, despite the US aims in the war being clearly divergent from the Israeli objectives. Indeed, some of his colleagues were quoted as having condemned him for saying “Kill all Muslims.” For Israel and Iran, the war is a geopolitical conflict for influence and dominance. As argued in this place two weeks ago, by forming a so-called Axis of Resistance with the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas, and to some extent Bashar al-Assad's Syria, the Iranians punched far above their weight before they were ready for imperial reincarnation. They are getting their just desserts today. And by using the instrumentality of war rather than diplomacy to pacify their enemies in the Middle East, the Israelis forget the lessons of history. Victories in battles are never a sufficient factor for fostering peace, lasting peace.

The US is unlikely to achieve all its war aims. Indeed, its vaunted military power has been demystified among its Gulf allies who last year bribed Mr Trump with all sorts of goods like planes and multi-billion dollar contracts. The protection the Gulf States thought the US was supremely capable of providing has been shown by Iranian missiles to be an illusion. Going forward, the Gulf States will begin to reassess their attachments and alliances, and the US will be the loser – all because mighty America fell under the sorcery a few self-absorbed men led by Mr Trump and Mr Hegseth, two amoral and flawed men clearly incapable of rational thinking. The Middle East will obviously never be the same again. Even if the US achieves clear victory, its influence in the region will diminish; and if Iran loses clearly, particularly militarily, the massive leadership haemorrhaging it has suffered guarantees both the erosion and diminution of its influence in the region and the end in the near term of its military and nuclear programmes. For both, any victory will be pyrrhic.