Latest / THE DAILY BRIEF / 'The kind of speech Iranian military leaders give their troops' Ayman BLASTS Hegseth's address

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'The kind of speech Iranian military leaders give their troops' Ayman BLASTS Hegseth's address · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up with the way he addresses the troops and
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: how much he invokes not just an abstract idea of
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: God that is all purpose, but one that is very
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: specific to his particular strain of Christianity?
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Given the moment we're in, and as you said, given
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: the fact that we're at war, this is just simply
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: bizarre to me. I just don't understand why he's focusing
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: on this issue and And we're all products of our experiences,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: but I embedded a bunch of times with American units
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: in Afghanistan, a little bit in Iraq. So much of
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: the credo was that people could practice whatever faith they wanted,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: but it was their personal belief. And it was a
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: force that, and also in terms of politics, I met
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: several officers. I remember one in particular who has not voted.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: He does not vote. Because he feels that as an
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: American military officer, he should just be loyal to the
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: country and that he didn't want any way to be
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: seen that he was favoring one political party or one faith.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: So it's just so outside the norm of what at
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: least I've seen when I've interacted with the U.S.
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: Military.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: Does it? What is the message it sends?
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: You know, it's funny because, you know, you know, I
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: covered the Middle East for a long time. If I
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: were to play this speech out of Tehran, people would
• 1:19
  Speaker 5: be like, this is a theocracy. This is the kind
• 1:21
  Speaker 5: of speech that Iranian military leaders give their troops to say, hey,
• 1:25
  Speaker 5: you are, you know, ordained by God to fight.
• 1:28
  Speaker 4: A holy war in the Middle East. And we are
• 1:29
  Speaker 4: trying to crusades. Exactly.
• 1:31
  Speaker 5: And it's used as a motivating ideological factor. And that
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: is what Pete Hexeth is doing here. He's using religion
• 1:37
  Speaker 5: as an ideological motivating factor here. to alienate American troops
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: from one another. He may not intend that, but that
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: is the end result, because if you are a Jewish soldier,
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: a Muslim soldier, if you're a soldier who doesn't believe
• 1:47
  Speaker 5: in God, and you're now being told that somehow you
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: are fighting in the name of God, and that what
• 1:52
  Speaker 5: has made this country amazing is because we believe in God,
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: and somehow we have a monopoly on that belief, then
• 1:58
  Speaker 5: you are alienating the people who say, I actually believe
• 2:00
  Speaker 5: in the Constitution, like the soldier that David is talking about,
• 2:03
  Speaker 5: I'm actually here to serve my fellow Americans. But that's
• 2:06
  Speaker 5: not what he's doing. Because if you're also giving a
• 2:08
  Speaker 5: speech to American troops, why are you televising it? Why
• 2:11
  Speaker 5: are you broadcasting it? I mean, for a guy who
• 2:13
  Speaker 5: is thinking about the morale of the troops, when you're
• 2:15
  Speaker 5: speaking to your troops in the middle of a war
• 2:18
  Speaker 5: that is not going very well for you, you're preoccupied
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: with being on a stage with your American handkerchief, with
• 2:25
  Speaker 5: the bright lights and the gelled hair and.
• 2:26
  Speaker 4: The tight suit. Like he's giving a TED Talk. Exactly.
• 2:29
  Speaker 4: And you're not there because you care about the soldiers.
• 2:31
  Speaker 5: If you're talking to them and you're trying to appeal
• 2:32
  Speaker 5: to them in a way that is actually to connect
• 2:34
  Speaker 5: with them, why are the TVs there? Who is this
• 2:37
  Speaker 5: speech really for? And it's not for the soldiers there.
• 2:39
  Speaker 5: The American soldiers' morale is... is not degraded because they're
• 2:43
  Speaker 5: suddenly feeling less belief in God. They're degraded because they're
• 2:47
  Speaker 5: worried about whether they have the ammunition supplies. They're degraded
• 2:50
  Speaker 5: because they're spending eight months on a US aircraft carrier
• 2:52
  Speaker 5: in the middle of a war that nobody knows how
• 2:54
  Speaker 5: that's going. They're degraded because we're getting updates that American
• 2:57
  Speaker 5: troops were killed or injured. And we don't know the
• 3:00
  Speaker 5: truth about the numbers of American soldiers that have actually
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: been injured or killed in this war. And suddenly we
• 3:05
  Speaker 5: get an uptick in those numbers because the Pentagon just
• 3:07
  Speaker 5: does a random release of numbers that nobody knows why
• 3:10
  Speaker 5: this is happening.
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: That's what's degrading the morale of our troops.
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: Let me play a little bit more from the speech.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: This is where he references the book of Isaiah.
• 3:26
  Speaker 6: Each of you swore an oath to the Constitution ending with,
• 3:29
  Speaker 6: so help me God. Each of us committed to the
• 3:32
  Speaker 6: nation with the sentiment of the sixth chapter of the
• 3:36
  Speaker 6: book of Isaiah.
• 3:37
  Speaker 4: Lord, here I am.
• 3:39
  Speaker 6: Send me. Send me to fight the Redcoats. Send me
• 3:44
  Speaker 6: to fight the communists. Send me to fight the Islamists.
• 3:48
  Speaker 6: Send me.
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: Susan.
• 3:51
  Speaker 7: Susan.
• 3:55
  Speaker 4: Katie, you know, what can you say?
• 3:58
  Speaker 7: I mean, it seems that he's fighting the wrong war here,
• 4:02
  Speaker 7: or certainly he's not mentioning the war that we're actually
• 4:05
  Speaker 7: fighting in favor of, you know, creating enemies that he'd
• 4:09
  Speaker 7: rather talk about. And I do think that's a striking
• 4:12
  Speaker 7: thing at this particular moment. You know, Pete Hegseth is
• 4:15
  Speaker 7: a guy who's really in trouble, who's in over his
• 4:18
  Speaker 7: head by many indicators. There are Republicans on Capitol Hill
• 4:21
  Speaker 7: as well as Democrats who are increasingly souring on him.
• 4:25
  Speaker 7: The administration asked months ago at the beginning of this
• 4:29
  Speaker 7: summer for an additional $ 86 billion emergency supplemental to fund
• 4:35
  Speaker 7: this war in Iran that Hegseth claimed in the same
• 4:38
  Speaker 7: speech was not actually still ongoing. He said, we already
• 4:41
  Speaker 7: won the war, except that it's still going. We need
• 4:43
  Speaker 7: $ 86 billion. Congress left town without giving it to him.
• 4:47
  Speaker 7: And that is in part because there's a real crisis
• 4:49
  Speaker 7: of confidence in even among many Republicans in how he's
• 4:53
  Speaker 7: running politics.
• 4:54
  Speaker 4: Pentagon.
• 4:54
  Speaker 7: So to hear it's that context to me, when I
• 4:57
  Speaker 7: see this, I see a guy who is sort of
• 5:00
  Speaker 7: desperately reverting to slogans, desperately trying to kind of gin
• 5:06
  Speaker 7: up a fight that he thinks that he can win.
• 5:08
  Speaker 7: But of course, they swore an oath, a constitutional oath.
• 5:11
  Speaker 7: The Constitution is that is very clear on the separation
• 5:16
  Speaker 7: of church and state. And again, this is actually an
• 5:19
  Speaker 7: example of this administration eroding, not just norms, but laws
• 5:23
  Speaker 7: and legal boundaries that exist for a reason. And my
• 5:27
  Speaker 7: fear is that it's another way of dividing. In this case,
• 5:32
  Speaker 7: part of what he's doing is speaking to the enlisted
• 5:34
  Speaker 7: members of the military and seeking to divide them from
• 5:38
  Speaker 7: the real enemy, which is apparently their own generals. He's
• 5:41
  Speaker 7: talking about firing 20 percent of America's general officers and admirals,
• 5:47
  Speaker 7: not with any due process whatsoever. And I think, again,
• 5:49
  Speaker 7: it's weakening an institution at a moment of time when
• 5:54
  Speaker 7: the society around it is also experiencing a colossal lack
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: of trust and loss of trust in our institutions.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: I just wonder who he thinks he's scaring with this.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: If this is intended to say that America is stronger
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and better and more lethal, he keeps talking about the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: warrior ethos. He has his deeply offensive, no more beardos
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: and weirdos, et cetera, line and fatties, and he's trying
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to get the troops in shape. We don't fight hand-to-hand
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: combat any longer.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: Who is this scaring? I.
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: I think it's scaring anyone at all.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: In terms of the fatties, hey, I would take General
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Norman Schwarzkopf, who won, you know, liberated Kuwait and was
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: a magnificent commander who's also a very large human being,
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: any time. A smart, fat general, any time over someone
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: who's not leading, you know, their troops.
• 6:46
  Speaker 4: And he's not leading the troops. So he's talking about
• 6:47
  Speaker 4: testosterone and rejecting more of the troops.
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: Look, this war arguably is destroying Donald Trump's presidency.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: His job is to serve the president and defend the Constitution.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: And he's talking about people's, you know, their weight. It's
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: astonishing to me. It's a dereliction of duty to use
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: the cliche.
• 7:05
  Speaker 4: And I think this is a distraction.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: I come back to the performative aspect of this, right,
• 7:08
  Speaker 5: because he knew that when he gave this speech, we
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: would be speaking about it. And rightfully so, we should
• 7:13
  Speaker 5: be speaking about it because he is constantly trying to
• 7:16
  Speaker 5: break down. the norms of what is acceptable speech about
• 7:20
  Speaker 5: the leadership or from the leadership of the Pentagon. But
• 7:22
  Speaker 5: I think it's distracting from what is happening on the
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: ground in Iran, which is that the United States is
• 7:27
  Speaker 5: in a quagmire. It is in a war that it
• 7:29
  Speaker 5: is not winning, despite the fact that Susan was saying
• 7:32
  Speaker 5: he keeps testifying that we've already won it. And the
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: president has very little options what to do in terms
• 7:38
  Speaker 5: of trying to get the United States out of there
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: on a victorious footing.
• 7:42
  Speaker 4: We've also destroyed the global economy. The As a result
• 7:45
  Speaker 4: of this war.
• 7:46
  Speaker 5: So to say that this is a mess completely made
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: by Donald Trump and Pete Hexeth is an understatement and
• 7:52
  Speaker 5: there's no way out for them. So as long as
• 7:54
  Speaker 5: they can shift to Susan's point, the conversation from the
• 7:57
  Speaker 5: real war to the cultural war and feed that to
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: their base going into the midterms, they feel that they're
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: on solid footing.
• 8:04
  Speaker 4: And that's what this is.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Are they looking forward to a political fight come next
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: January if Democrats are able to, Susan, take the House
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: or take the Senate? And there are impeachment proceedings against Hegseth. Again,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: you mentioned that there are Republicans that don't like him.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Thomas Massey has introduced articles of impeachment. It would need
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: to be reintroduced because Thomas Massey will no longer be
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: in Congress.
• 8:25
  Speaker 4: But does that speak to... the future?
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: And if so, is that a political fight that Pete Hegseth,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Donald Trump might want, as Eamon was talking about, as
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: a distraction?
• 8:40
  Speaker 7: Well, look, we all know Donald Trump likes fights and
• 8:43
  Speaker 7: considers them, you know, a distraction. And many times he
• 8:47
  Speaker 7: seeks them out where there isn't one that already exists.
• 8:49
  Speaker 7: By the way, this could come up as soon as
• 8:51
  Speaker 7: a lame duck session after the election, not necessarily even
• 8:55
  Speaker 7: waiting until January.
• 8:57
  Speaker 4: It is remarkable.
• 8:58
  Speaker 7: To me that rather than face a vote, an up
• 9:03
  Speaker 7: or down vote on that impeachment resolution that Mike Johnson
• 9:06
  Speaker 7: decided to put the house in recess a whole day
• 9:09
  Speaker 7: early and have them not come back until after the election,
• 9:13
  Speaker 7: that does not speak to confidence on the part of
• 9:16
  Speaker 7: House leaders about whether they could win that vote. And
• 9:19
  Speaker 7: that's even before the midterm elections. There are certainly any
• 9:23
  Speaker 7: number of senators, Republican senators who, you know, in a
• 9:27
  Speaker 7: lame duck session, those who might not be sticking around
• 9:30
  Speaker 7: in November, who might feel more empowered to vote against it.
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: It's impossible to imagine a scenario where there's enough votes
• 9:39
  Speaker 7: to convict in a Senate trial.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: You know, that's just not possible.
• 9:45
  Speaker 7: But there could be a majority of senators. You only
• 9:47
  Speaker 7: need a simple majority to vote to have an actual
• 9:50
  Speaker 7: trial if it came to that. And I imagine that
• 9:53
  Speaker 7: they could get enough Republican senators to go along with that.
• 9:55
  Speaker 7: But there is the political question as well, Katie. And
• 9:58
  Speaker 7: I think Democrats don't know the answer.
• 10:00
  Speaker 4: To that yet.
• 10:01
  Speaker 7: It's still very speculative. And, you know, I can't imagine
• 10:04
  Speaker 7: that Democrats want to be, you know, sort of jinxing
• 10:07
  Speaker 7: things and talking about into detail what would happen after
• 10:11
  Speaker 7: the election. But it's a political question and it's not
• 10:14
  Speaker 7: clear the answer. Whether it's a smart politics for Democrats
• 10:19
  Speaker 7: to pursue impeachments, knowing that they can't get a conviction
• 10:23
  Speaker 7: in a Senate trial. In some ways, Donald Trump very
• 10:25
  Speaker 7: effectively used the two impeachments that Democrats had against him
• 10:30
  Speaker 7: to his own benefit politically. And so I think there
• 10:33
  Speaker 7: is a question about that. But you will definitely see
• 10:35
  Speaker 7: very robust and aggressive impeachment. accountability efforts by Democrats around
• 10:43
  Speaker 7: the Defense Department and Pete Hegseth if they win the Senate. Hearings, subpoenas,
• 10:48
  Speaker 7: putting uniformed military officers under oath.
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: Don't you want to hear under.
• 10:53
  Speaker 7: Oath what these generals say they gave the advice to
• 10:57
  Speaker 7: Donald Trump about this war or not? I would like
• 10:59
  Speaker 7: to hear the chairman of the Joint Chiefs answer the
• 11:01
  Speaker 7: question under oath Did you tell the president that the
• 11:05
  Speaker 7: Strait of Hormuz would be closed if you launch this war?
• 11:08
  Speaker 7: Did you recommend that the president undertake this military action?
• 11:11
  Speaker 7: So I think we'll see things like that. And I
• 11:13
  Speaker 7: think we should, because that's how our system is supposed
• 11:16
  Speaker 7: to work.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was just going to ask what sort of
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: answers will we be looking for?
• 11:21
  Speaker 4: And you just laid it out, Susan. David, Eamon, guys,
• 11:24
  Speaker 4: stick around. Hey, it's Rachel.
• 11:26
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• 11:27
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• 11:52
  Speaker 6: Thanks.