Pete Hegseth wanted to be called the “Secretary of War,” not the Secretary of Defense. Now, his own troops have a different name for his department.
Rep. Seth Moulton, a Marine combat veteran who actually fought in Iraq, unlike the Fox News host who is now running the Pentagon, dropped a bombshell this week that should make every American pause.
He said, “I know active-duty Marines who now refer to Pete Hegseth’s department as the Department of War Crimes.”
These aren’t former officials or political rivals.
These are active-duty Marines who report directly to Hegseth. They’ve seen how he runs the show. They call their department the Department of War Crimes because of the orders they’ve received.
The nickname is a mix of Hegseth’s own attempt to rebrand the Department of Defense as the “Department of War”—which sounds like making up a cool title for a fantasy game—and the growing evidence that his time in charge has been marked by actions legal experts are calling war crimes.
The list is long and shocking.
Airstrikes in Yemen that hit residential buildings, killing over 200 civilians. Attacks on Iranian nuclear sites that may have broken both U.S. and international laws. A no-survivors order for attacks on ships in the Caribbean. A quick invasion of Venezuela without Congress’s approval. And now, Trump plans to attack Iranian civilian energy sites—same tactics the U.S. spent years condemning Russia for using in Ukraine.
Moulton said, “It’s meant to hurt civilians.
This is the same stuff we criticized Vladimir Putin for doing in Ukraine.”
Over a thousand civilians have died in the Iran war.
More than 100 of them were children killed when a missile, believed to be American, hit a school.
Hegseth’s spokesperson responded by quoting him: “They target civilians.
We do not, and I can tell you this administration and this Pentagon focuses on that very, very closely.”
A school full of children would disagree.
If they could.
And “Department of War Crimes” isn’t the only nickname Hegseth has gotten.
Pentagon workers also call him “Dumb McNamara”—a reference to Robert McNamara, the Vietnam-era Defense Secretary who sent tens of thousands of Americans to die in a war he knew was unwinnable.
The comparison is not a compliment.
McNamara, despite his failures, at least had intellectual credibility. Hegseth, the Fox & Friends host who needed a tiebreaker to even get confirmed, is seen as having McNamara’s eagerness to escalate without the smarts.
Same number of deaths.
Fewer brain cells.
This is the man in charge of America’s military.
This is the man who fired over a dozen decorated generals and replaced them with loyalists and personal aides. This is the man whose troops, the ones actually carrying out his orders, have given his department a name that should make every person who confirmed him feel uneasy.
This is the man running America’s military. This is the man who has fired over a dozen decorated generals and replaced them with loyalists and personal aides. This is the man whose troops — the ones actually carrying out his orders — have given his department a name that should haunt every single person who confirmed him.
About the Author
