In a “high-energy” speech, Whiskey Pete Hegseth tried to collapse several very different ideas into one convenient talking point: that questioning an unauthorized and enormously costly war is somehow the same as abandoning the troops sent to fight it.
Critics demanding answers about the U.S. attack on Iran, a globally disruptive disaster in terms of human life, environmental and economic damage, and a display of “having some fun” for convicted felon Donald Trump, were framed not as citizens asking for accountability, but as people undermining the military itself and not giving them enough praise.
A near-screaming at the press Secretary of “War” literally tried the oldest trick in the wall-selling playbook, insisting you get behind the war because “the troops.” I would gather the troops are also curious as to why their lives are put at risk.
Supporting the troops and demanding accountability from the politicians who send them to war are not opposites; both are patriotic.
I support the troops. I support bringing them home -- not abandoning them, as Whiskey Pete has, to choke on smoke from a dryer vent fire while swabbing out busted toilets on board the USS Gerald R. Ford.
Christ, always an asshole.