Fox News’ Pete Hegseth looked like he might swoon with ecstasy over Donald Trump’s latest escalation of violence, this time the Mother of all Bombs dropped in Afghanistan. When asked about civilian casualties from such a powerful explosion, Hegseth suggested they probably deserved it.
Hegseth gushed over Trump’s deployment of the MOAB:
HEGSETH: The troops are proud of him. I can tell you this. The commanders and the guys on the ground have wanted to unleash hell on ISIS and on the Taliban and on Al Qaeda for decades, but rules of engagement, politically motivated commanders, constraints from the White House have prevented them from fighting the kind of total war you need to. This is just one strike and one step, but it’s the right step, and it’s going to motivate guys on the ground.
Hegseth is an Army Naitonal Guard veteran, but how does he know how the troops feel about this? Did he poll them? Host Stuart Varney didn’t ask.
Hegseth also dubiously claimed, “The Pentagon may deny this but it is also a direct response to the fact that we lost a Green Beret a couple of days ago, fighting on the ground.”
Varney didn’t ask how Hegseth knew that, either.
Varney did ask about civilian casualties, noting there’s a “one-mile blast radius.”
“Could be,” Hegseth said without a trace of concern. He added, “We are extremely careful. Always are.”
Extremely careful? On Tuesday, Trump’s troops just killed 18 Syrian fighters allied with the United States, The New York Times reported today.
The strike, on Tuesday in Tabqah, Syria, was the third time in a month that American-led airstrikes may have killed civilians or allies, and it comes even as the Pentagon is investigating two previous airstrikes that killed or wounded scores of civilians in a mosque complex in Syria and in a building in the west of Mosul, Iraq.
Nope, Varney didn’t mention it.
Hegseth suggested that the military didn’t really need to be too careful because any civilians had it coming to them:
HEGSETH: This is Indian country. This is enemy country. This is a place where if you are there you’re likely collaborating or working with ISIS. Unfortunately, in any of these scenarios, you’re going to have some level of civilian casualties. We don’t want them, we don’t normally permit them at any mass level but you’re gonna have ‘em! And you can apologize for them but it happens.
Hegseth shouted with excitement. Then he returned to the gushing and mixed it with attacks on President Obama.
HEGSETH: America is back, the sheriff is back. See, he’s dealing with the mess of Barack Obama. This world is messy because America was gone and appeased and apologized for eight years. So, whether it’s the chemical attack, whether it’s sending the armada ships over to North Korea, whether it’s this right here, it signals to every enemy of the United States - tactical, operational and strategic, at every level - that if you oppose us, we’re going to find you and we’re going to kill you.
There’s no such thing as too much killing for Fox News.
Watch this latest bloodlust below, from the April 13, 2017 Your World.
Now, US says the target was an area housing 600 to 800 ISIS fighters and they killed 36. Wow, that will shake them up. We just won’t learn about this war. 16 years later and we still think we can win there?
The CNN expert even said the bomb was not as powerful as it would be because of the terrain, landing in a valley, so it could really only go down, not expand out as it should.
The moral bankruptcy of flag-wavers cheerleading #OrangeHitler’s relaxing rules of engagement and shrugging off civilian casualties is a perfect example conservative self absorption and lack of empathy.
But Pete Hegseth who is over here has no business getting a hard on over a big bomb in Afghanistan.