Source: TomDispatch
by Jasper Craven
“Earlier this year, President Donald Trump surveyed his top military brass on the prospect of making war in Iran. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine urged caution, presciently predicting that a ramped-up campaign against Iran could lead its leaders to close the Strait of Hormuz. However, Pete Hegseth, Trump’s self-styled ‘Secretary of War’, jumped at the prospect of such a conflict. ‘Pete, I think you were the first one to speak up,’ Trump recently recalled at a press event. ‘And you said, ‘Let’s do it, because you can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.” Americans join the military for any number of reasons: to serve their country, gain economic stability, or simply join a community. For Hegseth, a thirst for martial victory and a desire for a masculine metamorphosis seemed to surpass all else.” (05/24/26)
https://tomdispatch.com/pete-hegseths-desperate-crusade-for-masculine-validation/