With more than 1,000 civilian deaths in Iran, the U.S. secretary of war said the U.S. has loosened the rules of military engagement. “We are punching them while they’re down, which is exactly how it should be,” he said.
U.S, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth during a Pentagon press briefing Wednesday on the U.S, unauthorized war on Iran. (DoW/Alexander Kubitza)
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth on Wednesday boasted of the “death and destruction” the U.S. military can rain down on Iran, as reports say that U.S. and Israeli airstrikes have killed over 1,000 Iranian civilians in just four days.
Hegseth said at a press briefing that the U.S. and Israel should soon have “complete control of Iranian skies” and that it would mean “Iranian leaders looking up and seeing only U.S. and Israeli airpower.”
“Every minute of every day until we decide it’s over, and Iran will be able to do nothing about it. B-2s, B-52s, B1s, Predator drones, fighters controlling the skies, picking targets, death and destruction from the sky all day long,” he added.
[As the Pentagon is reportedly seeking an additional $50 billion to wage its unauthorized war on Iran] Hegseth said the war wasn’t meant to be a “fair fight” and mentioned that the administration has loosened the rules of engagement for the military.
“Our war fighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. 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,” he said.
Hegseth said that in the attack on Iran, which he has dubbed “Operation Epic Fury,” the U.S. military has “delivered twice the air power of ‘Shock and Awe’ in 2003,” referring to the massive bombing campaign that opened the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine said at the conference that the U.S. had hit over 2,000 targets inside Iran so far.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff U.S. Air Force Gen. Dan Caine conducting a press briefing Wednesday at the Pentagon on the U.S attack on Iran. (DoW /Alexander Kubitza)
The Human Rights Activists News Agency, or HRANA, a U.S.-based and US-funded NGO that’s very critical of the Iranian government, said on Tuesday night that at least 1,097 civilians have been killed and more than 5,000 have been wounded.
Citing Iranian medical authorities, Al Jazeera also reported on Wednesday that over 1,000 civilians have been killed. The HRANA said that targets struck over the previous 24-hour period included several military bases, two medical centers, and one residential area.
The worst known civilian massacre occurred on the first day of the bombing campaign, when a missile struck an elementary school in Minab, southern Iran, killing 165 people, mostly students.
Hegseth was asked about the strike and whose munition struck the school and said the U.S. military was “investigating” the matter. A map displayed during the briefing that showed areas the US had bombed showed that Minab was right in the middle of a strike zone.
The civilian death toll is expected to continue rising as Hegseth’s message during the briefing was that the war was just getting started and that more U.S. forces were on their way to the Middle East. “More bombers, fighters are arriving just today.
And now with complete control of the skies, we will be using 500-pound, 1,000-pound and 2,000-pound GPS-and-laser-guided precision gravity bombs, which we have a nearly unlimited stockpile,” he said.
Dave DeCamp is the news editor of Antiwar.com, follow him on Twitter @decampdave.
This article is from Antiwar.com,
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
“He was a guard at Gitmo” (Patrick Henningsen) re: Hegseth. Why does that not seem like the perfect US corpo-military-state face to present to the world at this time? The well positioned thug. When US “leadership” is in a downward spiral its tenticles do tend to drag most everything else with it.
“Overturn these tables…Disconnect these cables…This place don’t make sense to me no more… Can you tell me what we’re waiting for Senor?”
Let’s face it, folks, too many Amerikans love the excitement of war as long as it’s the US armed forces bombing and invading other countries who don’t have the means to defend themselves against the US war machine. What we have produced and so far cherish are the likes of the cowardly draft-dodger of the 1960’s, General Bone Spur, and the psychopathic Christian Zionist, Pete Hegseth.
Most of these so-called Christians don’t follow the teachings of the Christed Master Teacher who was against killing and other forms of violence.
Maybe, if we had thousands of our cities and towns bombed looking like Japan, and Germany by August of 1945, the American people who survive will probably decide that peace is better than war and change their way of thinking.
Except Iran is showing that it can defend itself.
Yes, they are, but I still think they need military help by Russia and China to counter the US and Israel.
Russia and China are assisting with intelligence for targeting missiles.Just as the U.S. and Britain has been doing for Ukraine these past four years. Without Starlink Ukrainians would be blind. Provocateurs in Iran during the protests were assisted by the U.S providing Starlink for communication and coordination.
Kudos, you managed to zero in on the crux of the real problem with our current topsy-turvy world. Unreciprocated rampant power projection capability almost always breed incorrigible strategic idiocy at the political helm ! If the emergent global multipolarity is to sound credible than Russia and China should lend a geopolitical helping hand to I.R. Iran. Otherwise, it would look like they are no more than mere sadistic bystanders watching a brainless beast sodomizing a downed beauty !
What else can be said about Hegseth other than he’s a messiah lunatic who actually believes he’s a modern day Crusader and has a Crusader cross on his chest to prove it. This administration has gone completely insane, now invoking Jesus and Armageddon into its messaging.
“Our war fighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly. Our rules of engagement are bold, precise, and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it. 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,” he said.
*
Perhaps Mr. Hegseth will deliver an in-depth, thorough, edifying/educational, academic-style lecture to elaborate and/or elucidate on precisely what type of message he meant to convey to the American people when stating: “And it is not a fair fight.”
Perhaps not…
is het internationale strafhof opgeheven?
Now we brag as we electroshock the entire planet with sanctions, tariffs, weapon of mass death and destruction as our primary product with a massive sticker price to world civilization is nothing to brag about. Our western god of war is on a rampage of fear of losing control of our drugs of wealth and power.
Hitler and his fellow psychopaths would be proud.
How does one comprehend such a lack of human emotion and basic humanity?
As one of the functions of the CIA complex at Pine Gap in Australia is satellite support for US submarines, it’s quite possible that Australia assisted in the sinking of the Iranian submarine.
Accessories to murder.
What else would you expect from our Lickspittle leaders?
Slight correction. The U.S. submarine sank an Iranian ship killing a 130 crew members. It was carrying zero ammo and was there as part of a military exercise with India thousands of kilometres from the conflict. Last I checked historically only Nazi Germany sank ships without warning,thousands of miles from a combat zone.
We learned that US military investigations are worthless as long ago as a village named My Lai. The only thing that happened then was that a staff officer named Colin Powell got ‘made’, and lived happily ever after and almost became President by not believing what he was told and taking no action. We know about My Lai not because of the official investigation, but because of a journalist named Seymour Hersh.
The US military will always cover up the truth, and protect the rear ends of the brass. They claim to have an Honor Code that says that they do not lie, but they will always lie to protect each other. Just like the former military in the police.
Powell had very little relationship with Lt. Calley, who led the massacre. In fact he was one of the persons who pushed to punish Calley.
Interestingly in the very same environment, you also had people like Hugh Thompson, the helicopter pilot who landed his aircraft between civilians and USA troops and ordered his crew to fire on Americans if they continued killing villagers. Same war, same day, same pressures — radically different moral outcomes. Given your logic that was also was a direct order from Powell? Try to not paint things with such a broad brush.
Guilty of crimes against humanity. The man is a criminal drunkard who cruel and not very smart. I am not religious but I wish I believed in Hell and its fires because he certainly belongs there along with the Idiot president and all of his minions.
Drunkard incompetent vicious fascistic nasty know nothing who is into human sacrifice in other words a war mongering war criminal
So helpful to get unbiased reports on this war on Iran. If you have time, could you confirm if the US is using “double-tap” bombing, which the Israelis used on Palestinians in Gaza. Its use in Tehran was reported by fairly reliable observers such as Mohammad Marandi. Like the bombing of the primary school for girls in Mirab and the sinking of the Iranian frigate in international waters off Sri Lanka, it must surely break accepted, conventional rules of war.
What conventional rules of war? And who is the referee? Is there a Penalty Box?
Maybe the Europeans once had some rules for war, but they have long ago been thrown out by the oligarchs as being inconvenient to the oligarchs. Since the Democrats are the Party of the Pentagon, I’d guess they still promote the myth of Rules of a Rules Based Order which are not written down and which the great USA can never violate, but its all a myth. Joe Biden would have told you that it was perfectly legal for him to bomb Iran had he decided to do so. The same America that still says it was right and proper to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki in violation of the rules. Its just that the Rules aren’t written down, and can be changed by the Oligarchs at any moment, without any notice being required. Like any other Terms and Conditions that you have no say in setting.
Al Capone understood. You can ask nicely, or ask nicely with a gun in your hand. America always preferred the later, and only arrested Capone on ‘tax evasion’. Welcome to America.
Rules of war?
The ultimate oxymoron.
Glad that CN has published antiwar.com’s editor’s piece
describing the total immoral depravity and vile inhumanity
of America’s military leadership.
Maybe the Joint Chiefs of Staff will tell us that Trump,
Jesus’s avatar loves dead Iranians.
No wonder an X-Marine was thrown out of the Senate
for saying “Nobody wants to fight for Israel.”
“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,”
This is a degenerate form of “military strategy”, centered on homicidal sadism, and the same can be said about “theologies” that support it (Israeli Modern Orthodox, American Christian Zionist etc).
I know I grew up poor, and not as some arrogant American Elite. But the rule on my playgrounds growing up was “Turn Abouts Is Fair Play.”
The reason veteran soldiers usually respect the niceties of war is that they know they might be the one laying helpless on the ground begging for someone else to respect those same niceties. Veteran soldiers know about the fortunes of war, and how they can break both directions. America is going to end up fighting a war where everyone else has agreed on “No Prisoners. No Mercy. Unconditional Surrender.” But there will probably be a faction opposing America that says that this is too good for the Monsters of Minab.
Hegseth is a piece of shit. A maniac.
Worse, far worse. As one commenter above said – he’s also a sadist. When you look at all his nasty tatoos [reveals my prejusice, I know] it tells me that he is a brutal, violent, aggressive neoNazi.
No doubt he’s friends with that other well-known POS Mrs. Lindsay Graham, the nasty S.Carolina sicko rumoured to have an unhealthy penchant for young males [yes, gossip, but his extremely hard line warmongering denies him normal respect].
No wonder the USA is is such a bad way, with degenerates like them running [or rather pretending to] run the show.
once they’ll be “done” with iran, who’s next? turkey?
astounding how many in the US military are willing
to obey illegal orders. even more embarrassing to me:
how my EU country’s leaders happily go along with it all!
Complete lack of any humanity decency or reason. Typical Israeli tactics too with the USA unable to consider that the world is made of sovereign nations.
Correction, “typical American Tactics”.
We are talking about the nation that used to throw prisoners out of helicopters in Vietnam to make other prisoners more willing to talk. We are talking about the nation that nuked Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We are talking about the nation that was involved in creating the Fire Storms in cities like Hamburg and Dresden. We are talking about the nation that committed Genocide against the people who got to this continent before the Europeans. If Israel learned these tactics, then they probably learned them from America’s Teacher, the English, or perhaps the Americans themselves. But its not like the Americans had never given Indians blankets with small pox before the invention of the State of Israel.
The USA has always had a hard time considering that the world was made up of sovereign nations, and we proved it by invading Mexico and then later Cuba.
Any decent human being should show remorse for killing so many school children.
Trump seems to have gathered a group of psychopaths to match his own affliction.
Nice of Mr Hegseth to volunteer evidence for his forthcoming war crimes trial.
Yeah.
“I was under orders”