History

Pete Hegseth Promotes a Brutal Warrior Ethos. The Middle Ages Teach Us This Is a Mistake

The Universalist

The Universalist

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Pete Hegseth Promotes a Brutal Warrior Ethos. The Middle Ages Teach Us This Is a Mistake
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at a press conference on the war with Iran. Arlington, USA, March 19, 2026 // Photo: Win McNamee / Getty Images

Does the cult of warrior spirit strengthen an army, or does it lead to strategic chaos? A martial arts historian reads the ideas of the US Secretary of Defense through a medieval lens.

By Maciej Talaga

The United States entered its confrontation with Iran with an overwhelming technological advantage, the world's most expensive military, and a Secretary of Defense who, in a programmatic speech, promised his generals they would "crush" every enemy with "violence, precision, and ferocity." The actual result, at least in military terms, has proved less impressive. Mistakes were made that military scholars will likely be analyzing for many years.

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