Pete Hegseth Might as Well Yell ‘I Want to Do War Crimes’ Outside The Hague
“The only ones who need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they’re going to live,” he told 60 Minutes over the weekend.
Screenshot: 60 Minutes Politics
It’s been 10 days since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, and on Monday, Al Jazeera reported that the death count is at 1,255, with mostly civilian casualties. But over the weekend, Secretary of War Defense Pete Hegseth sat for a 60 Minutes interview to definitively warn everyone that “this is only just the beginning,” and to openly fantasize about wiping out the country.
“The only ones who need to be worried right now are Iranians that think they’re going to live,” Hegseth said while answering a question from Major Garrett on whether Trump collaborating with other world leaders on the attacks could put more U.S. personnel at risk (so far, at least seven Americans have died). “No one’s putting us in danger, we’re putting the other guys in danger. That’s our job,” he said. Not like he doesn’t make a career out of endangering Americans, too, but who’s counting??
“The only ones who need to be worried right now is the Iranians who think they’re gonna live”
-Pete Hegseth, Very Normal Guy
— Laura Jedeed (@laurajedeed.bsky.social) March 7, 2026 at 12:58 AM
Aside from Hegseth perhaps manifesting his own Hague tribunal trial years from now, this is genuinely one of the most unsettling things he’s said in his career as defense secretary—which has been an undeniable chronology of one heinous clusterfuck after another. During the CBS interview, he also boldly claimed that “unlike our adversaries, the Iranians, we never target civilians”—seemingly referring to the bombing of a girls’ school on the first day of the attacks, which killed 175, most of whom were children, and which neither the U.S. nor Iran has claimed responsibility for. However, he quickly backpedaled that Iran was somehow responsible.
On Friday, Reuters reported that, according to two U.S. officials, military investigators believe the U.S. is responsible for the attack, though Trump then blamed Iran while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday. “I’ve already said we’re investigating,” Hegseth said when Garrett asked if the Reuters report was false. “If you could tell the American public it definitively was not us, you would tell us, wouldn’t you?” Garrett further probed. “I would say that it’s being investigated, which is the only answer I’m prepared to give,” replied Hegseth.
Unfortunately, this does feel like the natural conclusion of Hegseth splurging over a billion dollars in September to rebrand the Department of Defense to the Department of War: the U.S. is now neck-deep in a Middle East conflict that pretty much no one in the U.S. wants; that seemingly no one in the administration can definitively provide a motive for, and that Congress failed to put a stop to last week.
On Sunday, Iran’s Assembly of Experts picked Mojtaba Khamenei—son of the slain Ali Khamenei—to be the country’s next leader, in what seems to be a decision to openly defy the U.S. and Israel. Currently, little is known about the 56-year-old, but during his father’s tenure in power, Mojtaba reportedly helped conduct military and intelligence operations. Speaking to Time Magazine, one analyst said that the loss of his father—as well as his mother, wife, and child—in strikes might just have filled him with “an undying desire for revenge.” Last week, Trump told Axios that Mojtaba is a “lightweight,” and on Monday morning, told Fox News that he’s “not happy” about the new appointment.
During the interview, Hegseth also said, “We have just now begun to fight, just now begun to surge, and so if the Iranians haven’t factored that into who’s going to be the winner at the outcome of the war, over time they’ll start to realize how deep President Trump’s will is on this fight.” He continued, “This is war, this is conflict, this is bringing your enemies to their knees.” Genuinely, someone get this man to the Hague—now.
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