Mark Kelly Calls Out Pete Hegseth for Saying the U.S. Military Will Give No Quarter or Mercy to the Enemy

With each passing day of Mr. Trump’s war of choice with Iran, United States Secretary of Whatever Pete Hegseth, through his terrifying press briefings, is giving Saturday Night Live’s Colin Jost new material for that show’s cold open every week.

Unfortunately, war is not a comedy, and Pete Hegseth and Trump’s words, by demonstrating their incompetence, poor temperment, and questionable mental fitness, should horrify the American People.

While Trump is telling Fox propagandists that he will end the war in Iran when he feels “it in his bones” (so says the person who avoided service in Vietnam because of bone spurs), Pete Hegseth spent a press briefing partially berating CNN for what he says was biased reporting against the war and wishing for the day when newfound MAGA ally David Ellison takes over the network.

He also said about the conduct of the war, “We will keep pressing. We will keep pushing. We will keep advancing. No quarter. No mercy for our enemies.”

He really sounds like Martin Kove, who played the evil John Kreese in the Karate Kid movies and the Cobra Kai Series who preached that no mercy was a sign of weakness.

Or the Jason Issacs character, Colonel William Tavington, from the movie, The Patriot, who ignored the rules of war and shot wounded soldiers.

Senator Mark Kelly, who last year was threatened with disciplinary action before a judge threw it out, for pointing out with other Democratic veterans in Congress that soldiers should not follow illegal orders, posted this in response to Hegseth’s calls for “No quarter, no mercy.”

” ‘No quarter’ isn’t some wanna be tough guy line – it means something. An order to give no quarter would mean to take no prisoners and kill them instead. That would violate the law of armed conflict. It would be an illegal order. It would also put American service members at greater risk. Pete Hegseth should know better than to throw around terms like this.”

Pete Hegseth, in trying to project machismo and strength, is only presenting to the American People how ill suited he is in his current position.

This country suffered when Donald Rumsfeld mismanaged the aftermath of the war in Iraq.

The nation and the American People do not need another incompetent person heading the Pentagon who, being out of his depth, risks lives and the United States global position.