Messenger matters
I’ve never watched a two-person press conference on the same subject where I believed 95% of what one person said and not believe 95% of what the other person said.
The Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff held their third news gaggle to say the military component to the Iran war was paused. The U.S. and Iran have agreed to a two-week ceasefire to give the diplomacy a chance.
The news was certainly good. But outside of the headline here, I believed almost nothing Pete Hegeseth said.
It’s my third time watching these Pentagon joint briefings and the third time I’ve walked away in disbelief.
Secretary Hegseth goes to obvious pains to lather public praise on his boss. His autocratic affect takes away from his message. (Or is that the message?)
He speaks in hyperbole, replacing the incredible complexity and nuance of a war with over-the-top macho talk. This is not the stuff of a confident leader.
His odd cadence – and defensive and combative tone– doesn’t match the seriousness of the topic at hand.
Declaring victory, as Hegseth did this morning, is premature. No one knows if the ceasefire will hold and if the war will actually come to an end after diplomatic talks.
To Hegseth’s left, at the other microphone, was Dan Caine. He had command of the facts, the situation, and the room.
He used qualifiers and was cautious, something the fog of war demands.
Caine understands who the commander in chief, his boss, is, but doesn’t feel the need to perform or sycophant out.
He honors the military and has a sense of seriousness.