Pete Hegseth holds Pentagon briefing as war with Iran intensifies

Well, good morning. Yesterday at Do Air Force Base, President Trump, the chairman, and I stood in solemn silence as heroes came home. Flag draped caskets. We honored them. We grieved with their families and we listened. What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength, and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, "Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done."

My response along with that of the president was simple. Of course, we will finish this. We will honor their sacrifice. Their sacrifice only steals our commitment. I wear this bracelet. Staff Sergeant Jorge Ala, he was one of my sergeants or one of my specialists in Guantanamo Bay. He deployed later to Afghanistan where he was killed on 19th October 2011 killed 10 years after 911, 15 years ago. He was one of the 1%, the best of America, not just a guardsman, but a law enforcement offer off officer back home and a family man. I remember him every day just like so many other men and women of our generation and previous generations who wear bracelets like this just as we will always remember those lost in this conflict. Their names are now are now etched into our mission and into the soul of a grateful nation.

I stand here today speaking to you, the American people, not through filters, not through reporters, not through cable news spin. A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing. We know this at this point to downplay progress, amplify every cost, and call into question every step. Sadly, TDS is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail.

But you, the American people, know better. Yes, there are reporters in front of me, but they are not our audience today. It's you, the good, decent, patriotic American people. You, the hard-working, taxpaying, God-fearing American patriots. The media here, not all of it, but much of it, wants you to think just 19 days into this conflict that we're somehow spinning toward an endless abyss or a forever war or a quagmire.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Hear it from me, one of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, who watched previous foolish politicians like Bush, Obama, and Biden squander American credibility. This is not those wars. President Trump knows better. Epic Fury is different. It's laser focused. It's decisive. Our objectives given directly from our America First president remain exactly what they were on day one.

These are not the media's objectives, not Iran's objectives, not new objectives. Our objectives unchanged, on target, and on plan. Destroy missiles, launchers, and Iran's defense industrial base so they cannot rebuild. Destroy their navy. And Iran never gets a nuclear weapon. Our objectives from day one. To the patriotic members of the press, nobody can deliver perfection in wartime.

This building knows that more than anyone. But report the reality. We're winning decisively and on our terms.

Iran is a vast country and just like Hamas and their tunnels, they've poured any aid, any economic development, humanitarian aid into tunnels and rockets. That's what they did with Hamas. Iran has funneled decades of state resources not to their people but into missiles and drones and proxies and buried facilities.

But we are hunting them down methodically, ruthlessly, and overwhelmingly like no other military in the world can do. And the results speak for themselves. To date, we've struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure. That is not incremental. That is overwhelming force applied with precision. And again, today will be the largest largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was. As I've said from day one, our capabilities continue to build. Iran's continue to degrade. We're hunting and striking death and destruction from above. Iran's air defenses flattened. Iran's defense industrial base, the factories, the production lines that feed their missile and drone programs being overwhelmingly destroyed. We've hit hundreds of their defense industrial bases directly.

Their ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit of all. Ballistic missile attacks against our forces down 90% since the start of the conflict. Same with one-way attack UAVs. Think kamikaze drones down 90%. Now, the Iranians will still shoot. We know that. But they would shoot a lot more if they could. But they can't.

The last job anyone in the world wants right now, senior leader for the IRGC or besiege, temp jobs, all of them. And to borrow a page from Admiral Ernest King in World War II, we've decided to share the ocean with Iran. We've given them the bottom half. We've damaged or sunk over 120 of their Navy ships with battle damage assessments pending for many more. You see, oftentimes we have to wait a few days on battle damage assessment to get the real number. Their surface fleet is no longer a factor. Their submarines, they once had 11, are gone. Their military ports are crippled. Iran has terrorized the United States and our interests for 47 years.

Their core industries, not not steel or agriculture or tourism. Their core industries are state sponsored terrorism, proxy militias, underground networks, ballistic missiles, and a violent messianic Islamist ideology chasing some sort of apocalyptic endgame. A regime like that refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions is not just a regional problem. It's a direct threat to America, to freedom, and to civilization. The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press should be saying one thing to President Trump. Thank you. Thank you for the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb. Thank you for doing the work of the free world.

Yesterday's ceremony reminded us why we fight. Not for nation building or democracy promotion, but to crush direct threats to America, Americans, and our interests. We fight to win and we are winning on our terms following our objectives.

My 13-year-old son popped into my office last night while I was editing these remarks. He asked about the war and the families I met at Dover. And I looked at him and I said, "They died for you, son, so that your generation doesn't have to deal with a nuclear Iran. It's the truth." And they did. So to the families who said, "Finish this. We will. And I say the same to every American who wants peace through strength. May almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight. And again to the American people, please pray for them every day ...

Hegseth said:

"...We grieved with their families and we listened. What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength, and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family. They said, "Finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done..."

The grieving people who have lost loved ones have much more stomach and resolve than many of the weak-kneed (or TDS afflicted) surrender-monkeys that often post on this very forum.

We should do right by them. And that doesn't mean letting the Scumbag Iranian Mullahs off the mat, even to catch a single breath. Keep them there until they either die or capitulate. And even then, make them die...just be sure their capitulation isn't covered under taqiyya, so they can form again to come back and kill us at the next opportune moment for them.

I watched this presser and the entire press corps cannot ask a question, without four or five statements as a preface, and then the “question” has been slanted to elicit a twisted answer.

Do Air Force Base???

I’ve done 36.

Did you mean Dover?

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