26A015 Warmonger Hegseth by Jim Davies, 4/14/2026

Three years ago, long before he was tapped as Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth recorded a five-minute video for Prager U to convey his enthusiasm for the US military. Quite often in the ZGBlog I've commended Prager U for some of its products (for example the excellent series called The Hustle) but this one was dreadful.

It's worth watching (here) to see how bad it is. Hegseth actually suggests that if it were possible, America's warriors should be given the Nobel Peace Prize! His rationale is that many times, in the 20th Century alone, the US military has rescued the world for from terrible fates. Right there is his gross error.

Even if he were right, and even if the US Constitution were a valid charter for the FedGov to exist (and as we saw here, it's not) the purpose of its armed forces is to protect America. Period. Not to rescue anyone else from anything.

For a breathtaking example, just half a minute into the video, Hegseth asserted: "they saved the free world from German domination in the first world war. They saved the free world from Japanese and German fascism in the second world war, and from communism in the Cold War." These are very grave distortions of history.

That first claim is false because in 1914 Germany was not out to "dominate the free world." Germany had been formed half a century earlier out of multiple principalities and its industrious people had propelled it to prominence in engineering and commerce, but there was no plan in Berlin to launch a war to dominate even Europe, let alone the larger world. Its government had foolishly joined Austria and Turkey in a MAD-type alliance that obliged them to combat Russia and France if either attacked any of the three.

Under Tsar Nicholas II Russia did attack Austria, at which time German Emperor Wilhelm tried his best to wriggle out of that obligation and would certainly have done so if Britain had clarified in advance that it would intervene to support France. Britain was not treaty-bound, and left the decision until the last moment, which was alas too late; WW1 began. It quickly bogged down into a lethal stalemate, which would have ended by 1916 (in my view) but for the expectation that the USA would come to the aid of the UK and France - which it did, in 1917, so tipping the balance in 1918. The slaughter of the second half of that war was therefore caused by the intervention of the US military, which Hegseth praises.

Had no such intervention been expected, and peace restored on the Western Front in 1916, there would not have been a Versailles diktat for Germans to resent, so no Hitlerian nationalist party would have arisen in the 1920s. WW2 would therefore not have taken place, so there would have been no "German fascism" for the US to oppose; so much for most of Hegseth's second claim. Incidentally, without Hitler there'd have been no Holocaust, and without that there would have been much less support for forming a Jewish state in Palestine; Jews would have continued to migrate there, but quite possibly without the Muslim outrage that led to multiple MidEast wars including that on Iran.

On the Eastern Front in 1916 German and Russian forces were also about evenly matched, though back home Russia was running short of food. Given an armistice in the West, it's not unreasonable to assume that one would have been agreed in the East in 1916 too; and if so the disaster of the Bolshevik Revolution would have been avoided. In that case there would have been no USSR and no Cold War and hence no validity to Hegseth's third claim.

Far, therefore, from the US war machine being an influence for peace and freedom, its expedition to France in 1917 at the direction of President Wilson (D) was an indirect cause of a majority of the appalling record of death and destruction during the 20th Century. The enthusiastic Secretary of War has it pretty well exactly upside down; yet he now directs the most formidable instrument of force in history.

Even in government circles I doubt that there are many who actually love war; more commonly they blunder into one and then take abundant advantage of the chance it provides to expand their powers. But there are some such enthusiasts, and Pete Hesgeth is one of them. Winston Churchill was another; he was a strong influence in starting both WW1 and WW2. I hope Hesgeth is reigned in so that he does less damage in the 21st Century than Churchill did in the 20th.

The surest way to "reign in" all such jingoists is to undercut the vast system of rule their pals have erected, by declining to work for it in any capacity. For everyone to do that, of course they need to see government for what it is, and how radically opposed it is to freedom. For that, TOLFA is the best tool yet available.

I've done some Spring cleaning in the Archive here, making the list tidier and shorter - take a look! I found while doing so that the total number of ZGBlogs there is 882 and counting. Plenty to enjoy.