Hill: Trump Needs a Scapegoat for the Iran War and This is the Most Prominent Candidate

SadaNews - An article published by the American Hill website views that President Donald Trump is caught in a political impasse following the Iran war, and with his political legitimacy eroding among his supporters and in political circles, he has started looking for a scapegoat. Writer Jos Joseph clarifies that Trump is living a pivotal moment, especially with the rising calls for his impeachment, and that he usually manages to save himself "by sacrificing those close to him"; now it's Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's turn, which according to the writer, Hegseth has brought upon himself. Writer Jos Joseph: Hegseth's major sin during the war was not just exaggerating American military achievements, but in exporting these illusions directly to the President's office. While the writer acknowledges that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu played a major role in dragging Washington into the Iran crisis and promoting the "easy victory" theory, he asserts that Hegseth was the "biggest war cheerleader" in the administration, unlike U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. **Appeasement and Illusions** The writer - a veteran U.S. Marine - insists that Hegseth's major sin during the war was not merely exaggerating American military achievements and underestimating Iran's capabilities but in exporting these illusions directly to the President's office, as Hegseth was not conveying reality in his military briefings but rather what Trump wanted to hear. This may explain Trump's fluctuating statements since the beginning of the war about the complete destruction of Iranian military capabilities by the U.S. Army or his assertion that the war would not last more than two weeks, according to the article. Hegseth transformed the Pentagon from an institution based on cautious military assessments into a tool for promoting the "narrative of quick victory." Hegseth's appeasement of Trump is reflected in other controversial decisions, as the Defense Secretary sought to fulfill the President's desires from the beginning, from organizing a "not-so-good" military parade to managing a campaign against diversity policies within the military by excluding senior officers, which reflects, according to him, a priority of political loyalty over professionalism. This behavior - according to the article - created deep divisions with professional military leaders who understand the complexities of the battlefield, leading to public confrontations between Hegseth and military leaders such as Army Secretary Dan Driscoll. **The Illusion of Success** The writer criticizes what he calls "exaggerating military successes" and acknowledges that "armies lie in wars" to mislead their enemies, but he warns that the problem begins when these narratives turn into conviction within the political leadership itself, leading to decisions based on inaccurate information. According to the article, Hegseth transformed the Pentagon from an institution based on cautious military assessments into a tool for promoting the "narrative of quick victory," whether in Iran or elsewhere, which aligns with Trump's tendency to ignore real complexities and settle for quick results. The writer concludes that Hegseth "did not only promote illusions of victory to the public, but to the President himself." In this regard, the writer states that "Trump, who lacks military experience, does not tend toward the precision and caution that accompany military management; for this reason, he sought to appoint someone as inexperienced as himself to manage the world's most powerful fighting force." He concludes that Hegseth "did not only promote illusions of victory to the public, but to the President himself," and now Trump - who did not achieve the "easy victory" that he was promised - faces a "military quagmire and a political and economic storm," prompting him to search for someone to blame for the failure. Source: Hill