When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth invokes “no quarter, no mercy” and prays for "overwhelming violence of action" against those who "deserve no mercy" during a prayer service at the Pentagon, the country is hearing more than wartime bluster. It is hearing a dangerous view of power that confuses cruelty with strength, and risks replacing the language of disciplined force with the language of vengeance.

It’s even more concerning when the nation's commander in chief speaks of killing as an “honor,” and shares videos integrating the actual violence of war with fictional depictions pulled from popular culture films and video games. 

That matters because in the United States, war is supposed to be an instrument of policy, constrained by law and guided by discipline, not a stage for bloodlust.

Americans have long accepted that military force may be necessary at times, but we have also insisted that force be used for a lawful purpose, under civilian control, and with professional restraint.

That is not softness. It is one of the things that has long distinguished a professional military from a mob, and a constitutional republic from the regimes it opposes.

The American military ethic does not teach service members to delight in killing or to treat mercy as weakness. It teaches them to perform difficult duties under the law, mission and discipline.

It demands........

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