The recent US adventures in Venezuela and Iran have not, on the American side, wrought the same losses of life and limb as those of Vietnam or World War Two. No field medics ferrying the dying and the dead. No trenchfooted cripples waiting for their commanders to find the difficult words for the difficult hour. Nobody in front of whom one might feel it inappropriate to begin a speech with: “Warriors, good afternoon.”

Hegseth reached for an epic register only to be let down by his B-movie rhythm and hiccupy delivery

Hegseth reached for an epic register only to be let down by his B-movie rhythm and hiccupy delivery

Or, as Pete Hegseth, the self-styled Secretary of War, put it last month: “We are no longer the ‘Woke Department’ or the ‘Weak Department.’ Simple translation of that: No fatties. No trannies. No beardos. No weirdos. No wimps. No radicals. Just warriors… The patriotic cowboys are in – with testosterone testing on top.” 

There’s a note of paintball instructor machismo here. Hegseth speech, his inaugural “State of the Force Address,” reached for an epic register only to be let down by his B-movie rhythm and hiccupy delivery. 

The words are all too heavy for the sentences: there are 15 instances of “warrior,” half a dozen of “lethal” or “lethality,” and another half-dozen “warfighters.” It’s all very high octane. It’s all very “action stations.” It all desperately wants to deploy that very manly phrase: “boots on the ground.” But of course, there are no “boots on the ground” in Iran. It’s the absence........

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