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Times Opinion: Pete Hegseth’s holy war

Photo by Oliver Contreras via AFP/Getty Images/TNS / U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on March 31, 2026. Hegseth said Tuesday that talks on ending the Iran war are making progress even as the more than month-long US-Israeli military campaign against the Islamic republic continued. "They are very real. They are ongoing, they are active, and I think, gaining strength," Hegseth told reporters of the negotiations.
Photo by Oliver Contreras via AFP/Getty Images/TNS / U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on March 31, 2026. Hegseth said Tuesday that talks on ending the Iran war are making progress even as the more than month-long US-Israeli military campaign against the Islamic republic continued. "They are very real. They are ongoing, they are active, and I think, gaining strength," Hegseth told reporters of the negotiations. Photo by Oliver Contreras via AFP/Getty Images/TNS / U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth speaks during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., on March 31, 2026. Hegseth said Tuesday that talks on ending the Iran war are making progress even as the more than month-long US-Israeli military campaign against the Islamic republic continued. "They are very real. They are ongoing, they are active, and I think, gaining strength," Hegseth told reporters of the negotiations.

By The Editorial Board / The Philadelphia Inquirer (TNS) 4 min read

As Donald Trump’s war with Iran grows more volatile by the day, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bloodthirst and proselytizing risks spinning the conflagration further out of control.

In a war with no clear purpose, Hegseth has celebrated unleashing “death and destruction from the sky all day long.” He also has dismissed international rules of engagement and instead called for “maximum lethality, not tepid legality” and “violent effect, not politically correct.”

Hegseth has essentially green-lighted war crimes by claiming “no quarter, no mercy” for our enemies, which violates international law and the 1966 War Crimes Act.

Then again, Trump also has threatened war crimes in posts that warn of plans to bomb Iran’s civilian infrastructure, including electric plants, oil wells and desalination plants — moves that would unleash a widespread humanitarian crisis.

Just as troubling is how Hegseth has invoked religious rhetoric to justify the deadly attacks. During an evangelical worship at the Pentagon last week, Hegseth prayed for violence against enemies “who deserve no mercy.”