When President Donald Trump changed the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War last year, many saw it as just a branding exercise, but as the ferocity of Operation Epic Fury in Iran has shown us, it was much, much more than that.
On Easter Sunday, our military conducted a daring rescue of a downed airman behind enemy lines, and what it made clear once again is that Trump’s War Department is run by soldiers, not experts, and the results have been phenomenal.
As Secretary of War and former frontline veteran Pete Hegseth has often said, his Pentagon will focus on “maximum lethality, not lukewarm legality.”
Put another way, what’s the point of having the largest, deadliest, and most powerful military in the world if every bad actor around the world knows that America is too reckless to use it?
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When you compare the stunning success of our military operations in Venezuela, as well as the shock and awe throughout Iran, with Joe Biden’s staggeringly stupid and tragic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the difference is not just night and day, and not just winning and losing, but life and death.
As a soldier’s soldier, Secretary Pete Hegseth instinctively understands that the best way to avoid endless wars is to win them quickly, decisively and, as President Trump has put it, unconditionally.
Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has essentially assumed that it can easily win any downward, protracted military confrontation, so the question has too often been about winning the peace, not winning the wars.
This has almost always meant being less aggressive and using less force in the hopes of not creating more people around the world who hate America, but Pete Hegseth understands that this is not his job.
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Hegseth’s attitude is that when the bell rings, we pound our enemies like a young Mike Tyson until the bell rings again; we don’t keep them up for a few rounds to put on a good show for NATO and the United Nations.
Another thing Hegseth understands instinctively as a soldier’s soldier is that the best way to avoid endless wars is to win them quickly, decisively and, as President Trump has put it, unconditionally.
This willingness to take extreme measures is something that should give Iran’s leaders — who are at least still breathing — pause as we approach Tuesday’s 8 p.m. deadline for Iran to give in or face massive destruction.
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On Sunday, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Tuesday in Iran will be Power Plant Day and Bridge Day all in one. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the Straits of F—–, you crazy b——-, or you will live in hell – JUST LOOK! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.”
Liberals across the country cried out in pain and called for Trump’s removal, claiming that attacking infrastructure is a war crime, even though attacking infrastructure — or, if you want to get fancy, “disrupting the enemy’s interior lines” — is as natural to warfare as chipping is to golf.
Carl von Clausewitz was an early 19th century Prussian officer whose book “On War” is considered the birth of modern military tactics. In it he writes this regarding what defeating your enemy means:
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“What do we mean by the defeat of the enemy? Simply the destruction of his forces, whether by death, wounding, or in any other way – complete or sufficient to make him cease fighting.”
This is the Hegseth style of war: soldier first, expert last; it is not an eternal slog in which houses are carefully built with diplomatic cards. It is not a style that allows our naval forces to be captured and humiliated by Iran, as happened under Barack Obama.
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No, under Hegseth’s War Ministry there was no exchange for our downed soldier this week; he was saved by an army that blew up anyone who tried to get in his way.
No wonder recruitment and morale are soaring. Young men and women who join the military under this War Department know that they are neither diplomatic pawns nor guinea pigs in woke social engineering experiments; they are warriors.
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Whatever the final outcome in Iran, one thing is already certain: no country on earth, no enemy, can assume, as they did under the Department of Defense, that the US military will simply block punches without landing any.
After decades of civilian pundits and mild-mannered generals giving America a kinder, gentler military, warfare is back, and whether the United States of America is loved around the world or not, it will absolutely be feared.
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