We’ve all heard enough from Pete Hegseth, but considering he’s America’s war czar and the country’s at war (or was at war until yesterday evening), his press briefings are must-watch television.
On Wednesday, Hegseth tried to explain away his boss’s genocide threat while elaborating on how Tehran — and this is his framing, not mine — came to realize that a ceasefire which opened the Strait of Hormuz was the best course.
“Ultimately, Iran understood their ability — their future — to produce, to generate power, was in our hands,” Hegseth said, before quickly correcting himself, Lutnick-style: “Was in President Trump’s hands.” (It’s not “our” anymore. It’s just Trump. “There is no Dana, only Zuul.”)
I should note that independent reporting suggests it was actually Xi Jinping who forced Iran to agree to Pakistan’s deal. Islamabad’s “frantic diplomatic efforts” might’ve come to naught were it not for a “last-minute intervention by China,” three Iranian officials told The New York Times.
Dan Caine, who you have to think asked himself a lot of tough questions on Tuesday, stuck mostly to a standardized script during Wednesday’s press event, praising the US military’s “professionalism and courage.”
Asked about Iran’s enriched uranium, Hegseth alluded to the James Bond-Ethan Hunt option. “We know exactly what they have,” he said. “They’ll either give it to us [or] we’ll take it out.”
I assume the Pentagon has “a concept of a plan” for that hypothetical extraction mission but — and while readily acknowledging my own ignorance about the logistics — it seems infeasible.
That uranium’s buried under a mountain. How are the SEALs supposed to get to it? And what condition is it in? Let’s say they tunnel down and find it. What does 970lbs of highly-enriched uranium even look like? And how do soldiers carry it out of there? In a “special CIA napkin”?
Asked if the US is pulling up stakes during the two-week ceasefire, Hegseth said no: “We’ll be hanging around. We’re not going anywhere.”
As for the Strait, Trump told ABC’s Jonathan Karl it’s fine if Iran charges a toll — as long as he gets a piece of it.
“We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture,” Trump said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”
When I say that’s straight out of a mob movie, I don’t mean it figuratively.
The nuclear materials operation seems too hard to do as a Special Operations mission. US would need to secure an airstrip, fly in enough military equipment to reach and take a well defended Fordow plus excavation equipment, hold the site and the airstrip under fire (for how many days?) while digging down to and retrieving the nuclear materials (300′ underground?), then evacuate materials/people. The materials have presumably been made hard/dangerous to extract if not already moved. Also, won’t they have to do this twice more at Nantz and Isfahan? I think US would want to use heavier forces and more of them.
Time to bring in the big guns: https://youtu.be/ujHWeSkU57g?si=9rT4cBi6WiFASNOe
Hegseth and Scott Bessent have the best taste in suits of anyone in the administration.
That’s it. That’s all I got.
Pray to God you don’t drop that yellow cake!
Why is Hegseth wearing a BLUE tie? He’s gonna get fired for that.
what can ya say, gay guys usually have better fashion sense than straight guys
We are stuck listening to the words of criminally insane liars, trying to find something tangible behind the madness. Good luck with that. Playing the market generally is a crapshoot without all the current ‘end of times’ feng shui. Unfortunately we’ve paid for the ride and it isn’t going to stop as long as the Mad Hatter is controlling the off/on switch. How many of us will puke before this thing stops.
Leave it. Monitor it and bomb the sites if there is evidence that anyone is trying to get to the uranium. Robotic sentries?
Meanwhile, China has quietly resumed reclaiming land from the South China Sea. See Antelope Island.
“Ultimately, Iran understood their ability — their future — to produce, to generate power, was in our hands,” Hegseth said, before quickly correcting himself, Lutnick-style: “Was in President Trump’s hands.” (It’s not “our” anymore. It’s just Trump).
Is he afraid that Trump will think he is trying to get in on some of this “glory” and steal some of the limelight, or is trying to distance himself from this boondoggle? Inquiring minds want to know.
Probably both. If things go south, expect this ‘brave’ face of the war to be Noem’ed.
Another standup guy in El Trumpo’s gang.
Mos Def as the CIA Director is one of the best parts of what I think is Chappelle’s best skit (which is a difficult evaluation to make but it’s mine).