'​Shameless': Critics Hammer Pete Hegseth for Claiming 'We Didn't Start' War on Iran

In the Trump administration's first public remarks to reporters on the strikes the US and Israel launched in Iran over the weekend, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blamed the Middle Eastern country for the attacks that have killed at least 555 people there as well as at least four US soldiers—and suggested Iran posed an imminent threat because of its defensive military capabilities.

Hegseth said the strikes that began early Saturday morning and included deadly attacks on children attending school were "retribution" for Iran's "savage, one-sided war against America" that has played out for "47 long years" as the country has waged proxy attacks on the US.

"We didn't start this war, but under President Trump we're finishing it," said Hegseth.

Despite the fact that hours before President Donald Trump announced the US and Israeli attacks, the Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi reported that diplomatic talks he was mediating were making significant progress toward a peace deal, Hegseth asserted that Iran had a "conventional gun to our head" and suggested the US had no choice but to wage war.

Pentagon officials said in a congressional briefing Sunday that Iran had not been planning to strike any US military targets in the region unless it was attacked first, according to CNN.

The defense secretary also claimed Monday that Iran was "not negotiating" and said it was "stalling" in the talks with the aim of rebuilding missile stockpiles."

"To be clear," said journalist Jeremy Scahill of Drop Site News, "he is claiming the US went to war because Iran has ballistic missiles and drones it has used as a deterrent or to respond to US/Israeli attacks."

Drop Site noted that Hegseth made no mention of "the 1953 US-backed coup in Iran," US support for autocratic rule there from 1953-79, "or that the US and Israel launched the February 28 strikes."

On the UK talk radio show "Leading Britain's Conversation," British journalist Jon Sopel said Hegseth was making "the exact argument that [former President] George W. Bush made in 2003 with the weapons of mass destruction and 'They could be launched in 45 minutes.'"

Promises to end the US government's penchant for embarking on endless regime change wars, added Sopel, were part of "what propelled Donald Trump to the presidency, and yet Donald Trump and [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu have launched these strikes against Iran."

The defense secretary attempted to contrast the operation in Iran—dubbed Operation Epic Fury by the US military—to protracted wars like those the US has waged in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The conflict will not be an "endless war," Hegseth said.

He claimed at one point in the briefing that the clear-cut objective of the attacks is to "destroy the missile threats, destroy the navy, no nukes" and scoffed at a reporter's question about Trump's Sunday statement in which he said he expected the conflict to be resolved in "four weeks or less."

"President Trump has all the latitude in the world to talk about how long it may or not take. Four weeks, two weeks, six weeks. It could move up, it could move back," said Hegseth.

Hegseth spoke alongside Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, who appeared to temper expectations of a quick resolution to the war started by the US and Israel.

"To be clear... this is not a single overnight operation," Caine said. "The military objectives [US Central Command] and the Joint Force have been tasked with will take some time to achieve, and in some cases will be difficult and gritty work."

Caine added that the military objective is "to protect and defend ourselves, and together with our regional partners, prevent Iran from the ability to project power outside of its borders."

Law professor Jennifer Taub denounced Hegseth's remarks as "utter nonsense" and condemned his claim that the US and Israel are hitting military targets "surgically."

"Shameless," she said. "We or Israel bombed a girl's school on Saturday when school was in session, killing 175."

Along with Hegseth's claim that Iran was to blame for the strikes launched by the US and Israel, his comment that the US will expedite the operation by not getting bogged down in "stupid rules of engagement" alarmed observers.

"'No stupid rules of engagement' means no Geneva Conventions or other international humanitarian laws, which the US signed and supported for more than a century," said journalist Mark Jacob. "Hegseth and Trump are pro-war crimes."