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00:00Let's listen to the U.S. Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth.
00:03Well, good morning.
00:06Yesterday at Dover Air Force Base, President Trump, the chairman, and I stood in solemn silence as heroes came home.
00:14Flag-draped caskets. We honored them. We grieved with their families, and we listened.
00:22What I heard through tears, through hugs, through strength, and through unbreakable resolve was the same from family after family.
00:34They said, finish this. Honor their sacrifice. Do not waver. Do not stop until the job is done.
00:45My response, along with that of the president, was simple. Of course, we will finish this.
00:50We will honor their sacrifice. Their sacrifice only steals our commitment.
00:58I wear this bracelet. Staff Sergeant Jorge Oliveira, he was one of my specialists in Guantanamo Bay.
01:07He deployed later to Afghanistan, where he was killed on 19 October 2011.
01:12Killed 10 years after 9-11, 15 years ago.
01:15He was one of the 1%, the best of America.
01:19Not just a guardsman, but a law enforcement officer back home, and a family man.
01:24I remember him every day, just like so many other men and women of our generation, and previous generations who
01:30wear bracelets like this.
01:31Just as we will always remember those lost in this conflict.
01:37Their names are now etched into our mission, and into the soul of a grateful nation.
01:46I stand here today, speaking to you, the American people.
01:53Not through filters. Not through reporters. Not through cable news spin.
02:01A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing.
02:05We know this at this point, to downplay progress, amplify every cost, and call into question every step.
02:15Sadly, TDS is in their DNA.
02:20They want President Trump to fail.
02:22But you, the American people, know better.
02:26Yes, there are reporters in front of me, but they are not our audience today.
02:33It's you, the good, decent, patriotic American people.
02:38You, the hardworking, taxpaying, God-fearing American patriots.
02:44But, the media here, not all of it, but much of it, wants you to think, just 19 days into
02:53this conflict,
02:54that we're somehow spinning toward an endless abyss, or a forever war, or a quagmire.
03:01Nothing could be further from the truth.
03:04Hear it from me, one of hundreds of thousands who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan,
03:10who watched previous foolish politicians, like Bush, Obama, and Biden, squander American credibility.
03:20This is not those wars.
03:23President Trump knows better.
03:27Epic Fury is different.
03:29It's laser-focused. It's decisive.
03:31Our objectives, given directly from our America First president, remain exactly what they were on day one.
03:40These are not the media's objectives, not Iran's objectives, not new objectives.
03:48Our objectives.
03:50Unchanged, on target, and on plan.
03:55Destroy missiles, launchers, and Iran's defense industrial base,
04:00so they cannot rebuild, destroy their navy, and Iran never gets a nuclear weapon.
04:07Our objectives from day one.
04:11To the patriotic members of the press,
04:14nobody can deliver perfection in wartime.
04:17This building knows that more than anyone.
04:20But report the reality.
04:23We're winning, decisively, and on our terms.
04:29Iran is a vast country, and just like Hamas and their tunnels,
04:33they've poured any aid, any economic development, humanitarian aid, into tunnels and rockets.
04:39That's what they did with Hamas.
04:40Iran has funneled decades of state resources, not to their people,
04:45but into missiles and drones and proxies and buried facilities.
04:52But we are hunting them down, methodically, ruthlessly, and overwhelmingly,
04:58like no other military in the world can do.
05:01And the results speak for themselves.
05:04To date, we've struck over 7,000 targets across Iran and its military infrastructure.
05:09That is not incremental.
05:11That is overwhelming force applied with precision.
05:14And again, today will be the largest strike package yet, just like yesterday was.
05:20As I've said from day one, our capabilities continue to build.
05:23Iran's continue to degrade.
05:25We're hunting and striking death and destruction from above.
05:31Iran's air defenses flattened.
05:34Iran's defense industrial base, the factories, the production lines
05:38that feed their missile and drone programs, being overwhelmingly destroyed.
05:43We've hit hundreds of their defense industrial bases directly.
05:48Their ability to manufacture new ballistic missiles has probably taken the hardest hit of all.
05:53Ballistic missile attacks against our forces, down 90% since the start of the conflict.
05:58Same with one-way attack UAVs.
06:00Think kamikaze drones, down 90%.
06:03Now, the Iranians will still shoot.
06:05We know that.
06:05But they would shoot a lot more if they could.
06:08But they can't.
06:11The last job anyone in the world wants right now?
06:14Senior leader for the IRGC.
06:17Or besiege.
06:19Temp jobs.
06:20All of them.
06:22And to borrow a page from Admiral Ernest King in World War II,
06:26we've decided to share the ocean with Iran.
06:30We've given them the bottom half.
06:33We've damaged or sunk over 120 of their Navy ships,
06:37with battle damage assessments pending for many more.
06:40See, oftentimes we have to wait a few days on battle damage assessment to get the real number.
06:45Their surface fleet is no longer a factor.
06:47Their submarines, they once had 11, are gone.
06:49Their military ports are crippled.
06:52Iran has terrorized the United States and our interests for 47 years.
06:59Their core industries, not steel or agriculture or tourism,
07:05their core industries are state-sponsored terrorism, proxy militias, underground networks, ballistic missiles,
07:11and a violent, messianic, Islamist ideology chasing some sort of apocalyptic endgame.
07:20A regime like that, refusing to abandon its nuclear ambitions, is not just a regional problem.
07:28It's a direct threat to America, to freedom, and to civilization.
07:33The world, the Middle East, our ungrateful allies in Europe, even segments of our own press,
07:41should be saying one thing to President Trump.
07:46Thank you for the courage to stop this terror state from holding the world hostage with missiles
07:51while building or attempting to build a nuclear bomb.
07:55Thank you for doing the work of the free world.
08:01Yesterday's ceremony reminded us why we fight.
08:05Not for nation-building or democracy promotion,
08:08but to crush direct threats to America, Americans, and our interests.
08:15We fight to win, and we are winning, on our terms, following our objectives.
08:24My 13-year-old son popped into my office last night while I was editing these remarks.
08:30He asked about the war and the families I met at Dover.
08:34And I looked at him and I said,
08:36They died for you, son,
08:40so that your generation doesn't have to deal with a nuclear Iran.
08:46It's the truth.
08:47And they did.
08:49So to the families who said, finish this, we will.
08:54And I say the same to every American who wants peace through strength.
09:00May Almighty God continue to bless our troops in this fight.
09:04And again, to the American people, please pray for them every day, on bended knee, with your family, in your
09:14schools, in your churches, in the name of Jesus Christ.
09:19To the troops, keep going.
09:23And Godspeed.
09:25Over to you, Mr. Chairman.
09:26Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
09:28Ladies and gentlemen, good morning, and thank you all for being here.
09:31I also had the honor yesterday, as the Secretary said, of traveling up to Dover with the President to welcome
09:36home our sixth fallen.
09:37It was an honor and a privilege for me to be there and to say thank you to their families.
09:42And I want to mention their names this morning.
09:44From the 6th Aerial Refueling Wing out of MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, but stationed as part of an active
09:51associate unit at Birmingham, Alabama, Major Alex Klinner, John Alex Klinner, Major Ariana Savino.
10:01She was posthumously promoted from captain to major.
10:04And Technical Sergeant Ashley Pruitt, the boom operator on that crew.
10:09From the 121st Aerial Fueling Wing, Ohio Air National Guard, out of Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio,
10:18Captain Seth Koval, Captain Curtis Angst, and now Master Sergeant Tyler Simmons, who was also promoted in the boom operator
10:26on that crew.
10:27To a person and every family member I spoke with yesterday, they all shared that their family members loved serving.
10:35They loved being part of a great team and a crew, and they loved airplanes and aviation.
10:41Our nation's tanker crews really are unsung heroes.
10:45Incredible warriors who put their lives on the line so we can continue to take the fight to an enemy.
10:51I've personally witnessed their courage and tenacity many times, from the morning of September 11th, where they answered my call
11:00for some help,
11:01to the skies over foreign countries, where they've come forward out of their safe tanker track to give me gas
11:07when I simply could not leave a ground force that was engaged in a firefight.
11:12They've answered the call and come forward time and time and time again.
11:17I'm filled with incredible pride and gratitude for all that the tanker crews do, our pilots, our boom operators, and
11:25the maintainers.
11:27And to the families of our six fallen, know that we share your grief.
11:32Our nation will never forget their sacrifice, and we will never forget their names.
11:38Our entire joint force mourns with you today, and we'll continue to remember their incredible gift of a great example
11:46for all of us.
11:47Now, let me turn to an operations update.
11:50U.S. CENTCOM remains on plan to achieve our military objectives and remain unrelenting in our pursuit of Iranian missile
11:58capabilities,
11:59UAV capabilities, and their Navy, and as the Secretary said, their industrial base.
12:04Each day, we continue to attack deeper into Iranian territory.
12:10As reported by U.S. Central Command yesterday, the U.S. military dropped 5,000-pound penetrator weapons into underground
12:18storage facilities,
12:20storing coastal defense cruise missiles and other support equipment.
12:23These weapons are bespokely designed to get through concrete and or rocks and function after penetrating those barriers.
12:35We continue to hunt and kill mine storage facilities and naval ammunition depots.
12:40We continue to hunt and kill afloat assets, including more than 120 vessels and 44 mine layers, and the pressure
12:48will continue.
12:49We're flying further to the east now and penetrating deeper into Iranian airspace to hunt and kill one-way attack
12:56garrisons,
12:57destroying Iran's ability to project power outside of its borders.
13:01The A-10 Warthog is now in the fight across the southern flank and is hunting and killing fast-attack
13:08watercraft in the Straits of Hormuz.
13:10In addition, AH-64 Apaches have joined the fight on the southern flank, and they continue to work on the
13:18southern side,
13:19and that includes some of our allies who are using Apaches to handle one-way attack drones.
13:25In Iraq, AH-64s have been striking against Iranian-aligned militia groups to make sure that we suppress any threat
13:34in Iraq against U.S. forces or U.S. interests.
13:38And we remain focused on pursuit of any platform that Iran could field to harm Americans or our partners.
13:47Last Friday, Admiral Cooper and the CENTCOM team conducted precision strikes against more than 90 targets on Karg Island,
13:54which included all of their military-only infrastructure, which included air defenses, naval base, mine storage, and deployment facilities.
14:03And as the Secretary mentioned, we continue to strike against Iran's defense industrial base, and will continue to do so.
14:11Today, I want to continue my theme of talking about members of our incredible joint force.
14:17Today, I want to talk about some exceptional airmen who are engaged in the fight daily.
14:22United States Air Force, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard crews within our bomber force.
14:27The B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s, and the airmen on the ground who maintain and load these weapon
14:35systems.
14:35They are the backbone of America's long-range strike capability, and their contributions to Epic Fury have been decisive.
14:44Assigned to STRATCOM under Admiral Rich Correll, and supported by TRANSCOM, the tanker force that we've talked about,
14:51under the command of General Randall Reed, every mission is designed to achieve overwhelming outcomes on behalf of the United
14:59States and our allies.
15:01Last weekend, I had the chance to go out and see some of our deployed bomber forces, the B-1
15:07and B-52 crews,
15:09and I had a chance to sit down with some young aviators and maintainers and ask them,
15:14how do you feel? Tell me about your typical day.
15:17And these are crews comprised of between two and five airmen, two on the B-2s, five on the B
15:26-52s, and four in the B-1s out there.
15:31Some of these Americans are in their early or mid-20s, and we give them the gift of this incredible
15:37responsibility.
15:39Hundreds of thousands of pounds of aircraft, and they take off and go do our work as required.
15:45Their mission actually begins the day prior when they're given a target or a bunch of targets,
15:51and they begin to study those targets, look at what are the effects required, what are the weapons required to
15:57get there,
15:57how will we program these weapons, what is the weather, what is the tanker flow.
16:01It's an incredibly complex problem that we give each and every one of these crews,
16:06and they work it over the period of 24 hours prior, get some rest, and then step out the door
16:12to go fly.
16:13The last thing they do is they check all of their equipment, their oxygen masks, survival gear, load pistols, and
16:19get ready to go.
16:20They crank the jets about an hour prior to takeoff and then launch into the daylight,
16:25doing their pre-flight checks, and as the kids say, lock in and prepare to go to war,
16:30sometimes on a long and stressful journey.
16:34During the flight, they're surrounded by technology and capabilities,
16:38and they'll do multiple aerial refueling efforts across tankers on the way to the AOR, area of responsibility,
16:47either coming from the states or coming from a forward deployed basing.
16:51And I will tell you, as a fighter pilot, getting gas is a lot easier in an F-16 than
16:56it is in a B-1, B-2,
16:58or a B-52, where you are handling this airplane.
17:03It is a physical thing, unlike a fighter that's a lot easier.
17:07And they stay on that boom for sometimes up to 30 minutes, taking hundreds of thousands of pounds of gas.
17:14It is a physical, demanding thing to take gas.
17:18And they do it multiple times on the way there, and they do it multiple times on the way home.
17:23As they enter the operating area, they bring the entirety of America's joint force together
17:28to go do the things that we've tasked them to do, to put bombs on time, on target, with the
17:35proper effects.
17:36And I know they're feeling a range of emotions,
17:38but the thing the American people should take away from it is they're filled with a focus that is incredibly
17:44impressive.
17:45And they have fear, of course, but their bigger fear is,
17:49Dear God, please don't let me screw this up, the warrior's prayer that we all have in our souls.
17:56In the days of Epic Fury, they were shooting, as we've talked about in this room, a lot of standoff
18:01weapons.
18:02Now we've switched and rolled, as I mentioned last week, to stand-in weapons.
18:07And behind each and every one of them are incredible maintainers and weapons builders
18:13who go out there and make sure these aircraft and their weapon systems are ready to go.
18:18These airplanes are so big that they're not in hangars.
18:21They're out in the cold, out in the snow, out in the rain.
18:25The bombs are being built outside for protection and to make sure that it's safe.
18:30And they do it 24-7, 365.
18:33It's not comfortable work, but when you go spend just a minute with these incredibly young Americans
18:39who are so motivated, you cannot come away from that exchange not being hopeful for America's future.
18:46It is simply awesome.
18:49And we hand these Americans, young Americans, incredible and weighty responsibility,
18:55and they deliver every single time, quietly, with professionalism and humility,
19:03doing the things that we ask them to do.
19:06In conclusion, we will continue major combat operations.
19:09As the Secretary said, we continue to get busier.
19:12I know the Secretary and I share that we're incredibly proud of 2.8 million members of our joint force.
19:18I am personally and we are personally grateful for the tenacity and professionalism of the brave men and women
19:25who serve inside STRATCOM, CENTCOM, SpaceCOM, CyberCOM, TransCOM, and the rest of the joint force.
19:32And I'll close where I started.
19:35I ask today that we remember those six fallen that came home.
19:39They represent the best of our nation.
19:42For those families that are feeling the pain, know that we are with you and will remain with you.
19:47May we always prove worthy of their sacrifice.
19:51And I'll turn it back over to you, sir.
19:52Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
19:53I'll take a couple questions.
19:55Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
19:56Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
19:56Given the updated degradation in strike target numbers you laid out, how close would you say we are towards achieving
20:03the President's objectives?
20:04And what is the endgame of the operation without divulging any sensitive battle plans?
20:08Well, we wouldn't want to set a definitive time frame on that.
20:11But as we've said, we're on plan.
20:12So we're looking at those metrics very closely, relaying that to the President and the national security team.
20:17But feel confident that as, again, we're more stand in means we're over the top, even further in.
20:24And we have even more of an exact sense of what we're striking and why and even more dynamically.
20:30Meaning because the intelligence improves, we're able to more quickly identify targets when they, let's say, they come out of
20:35an underground facility where they've been hiding and able to strike it before it strikes or right after it shoots.
20:41But we are very much on plan.
20:43And that's what I that's why I want to speak to the American people here.
20:45You hear a lot of noise about widening or new missions or speculation about what we should or should not
20:51be doing.
20:52This is a clear set of objectives.
20:54The President has given us every capability we need to accomplish that.
20:57We've got the best in the world in uniform executing it on the ground.
21:01They believe in and are invested in this mission.
21:05And it will be at the President's choosing, ultimately, where we say, hey, we've achieved what we need to on
21:10behalf of the American people to ensure our security.
21:13So no time set on that, but we're very much on track.
21:17Absolutely.
21:17Yes, right here.
21:19Good morning, Mr. Secretary.
21:20David Zier, Real America's Voice News.
21:23What countries have been the most cooperative with us, including the Gulf states as Europe hedges?
21:29And I also wanted to ask you, the Internet blackouts by the regime, it's been shut down for weeks.
21:35Is the U.S. military playing a role in, you know, fighting against the regime, blocking VPN networks and satellites
21:42and other things?
21:45Is there is there a role for the U.S. military there?
21:49Obviously, on the allies and partners side, Israel, from day one, has been an incredible and capable partner, willing and
21:56able.
21:56There's nothing like capabilities and partners that are able to use them.
22:00The Gulf states have stepped up incredibly.
22:03In fact, Iran's sort of reckless attempt to strike civilian infrastructure and other things has brought countries who maybe would
22:11have not been as all in as they are today squarely into our orbit.
22:15And we're proud to be defending with them, standing with them, you name it, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia,
22:24and others who have been right there.
22:25And we're grateful for that kind of support.
22:28As far as the Internet, we're watching the regime try to tighten its grip as much as possible.
22:33And we're obviously taking countermeasures, many of which we can't talk about here, to ensure that messaging is delivered, not
22:40just to the Iranian people writ large, but to the right audiences,
22:43certain audiences that need to hear certain things about what their fate might look like or what their choices are.
22:49So even though that regime is trying really hard to ensure the world can't see, right, they want to put
22:55out fake AI-generated images,
22:57which, by the way, sometimes our press happens to fall for, like the Abraham Lincoln on fire and turning around.
23:02These AI-generated images are meant to make it look like something's happening when the exact opposite is.
23:07So they make up fake reports and fake images to lie to their own people to try to make it.
23:13But even then, their own people can barely receive a lot of those messages and communicate because of the blackout
23:17that they've imposed upon them.
23:19But we work around that for sure.
23:22Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
23:24General, overnight Iran launched missiles across the Gulf.
23:27They managed to hit the Saudi oil refinery on the Red Sea.
23:33What does it mean that they have that capability now, three weeks into the war?
23:37And, Mr. Secretary, you mentioned civilian infrastructure.
23:41Iran seems to be treating U.S. diplomatic outposts, embassies, consulates like they are legitimate hard targets in the region
23:51now.
23:52What is the Pentagon doing to, I guess, secure those assets, stop those attacks?
23:58Absolutely.
23:59Thanks for the question on the missile strikes.
24:01You know, as we said and have always said clearly, they came into this fight with a lot of weapons.
24:07This is why we continue to be as aggressive and assertive as we can against their ballistic missile capability,
24:15both their medium-range ballistic missile capability and their short-range missile capability.
24:20So we are continuing to hunt and find them and kill them, and we will continue to do so.
24:26So they still retain some capability.
24:29And we have layered defenses throughout the region that will allow us to protect those.
24:34And we're working with our partners across the Gulf region to help them improve any defensive capabilities that they may
24:40need.
24:40To that point on capabilities, you know, Iran is an energy-rich country, could be, should be.
24:46Instead, like so many other places driven by a radical ideology, they've spent that money instead of investing in their
24:52people.
24:53And that's why you had millions of Iranians protesting, because they felt like their condition, quality of life didn't match
24:59what it could be or should be.
25:00And what was the Iranian state?
25:01There's a reason we call Iran the number one state sponsor of terrorism, because they took the money they make
25:08and they invest it in tunnels and they invest it in missiles and they invest it in launchers and UAVs.
25:13And we are destroying and degrading that in historic proportions.
25:16But it doesn't mean they won't still have some and try to hold people at issue, which is why we're
25:21fighting every single day to continue to compel.
25:23And you mentioned embassies and consulates.
25:26Unlike previous administrations, we are doubling and tripling down on ensuring that our people, regardless of their Department of War,
25:34Department of State, whatever they do, are secure in those facilities.
25:37And the best defense is a good offense.
25:40And so we're not afraid to go after and kill anybody.
25:43And we have a lot of them attempting to target our diplomatic facilities.
25:47Iran, you know, we're not surprised that they would indiscriminately target, and we're still seeing that.
25:53Jerry.
25:55As part of the justification for the war against Iran, the White House has laid out in fairly comprehensive fashion
26:01that the Iranian regime has 47 years of terrorism aimed at the U.S.,
26:06including pointing to the IRGC's provision of weapons and EFPs to help kill Americans in Iraq.
26:14The Pentagon in 2019 assessed Iran was responsible for the deaths of at least 603 service members in Iraq.
26:21But there hasn't been a similar accounting, public accounting, by Iran's role helping the Taliban in Afghanistan.
26:30And that also hasn't been part of the White House's public argument.
26:33I was wondering if you could speak to Iran's role in helping the Taliban during the war in Afghanistan.
26:41And, Chairman, as you and the Secretary eloquently spoke about, 13 U.S. service members have been killed so far
26:49during Operation Epic Fury.
26:51I was wondering what lessons have been learned from those deaths, both from Iranian strikes, from an aircraft refueling accident.
27:00How are those lessons being applied to the current conflict?
27:03And how are those lessons going to be applied to a potential conflict in Indo-Pacon?
27:10Well, thank you for the question.
27:11And it's true.
27:13In a town that can have a very short memory, President Trump does not.
27:17He remembers what this regime, Iranian regime, was founded on, what their declaration has been from the beginning.
27:23Death to America, death to Israel.
27:26They've stated that.
27:27They've intended to, in every way, try to accomplish that, killing Americans in any theater they can, embassies for quite
27:34a long time.
27:36In Iraq, that was the deadliest weapon, was the EFP, the explosively formed penetrator.
27:40I was there when that tactic and technique started to emerge.
27:43And the realization was it wasn't just jihadis putting together 155 rounds, daisy-chained.
27:49It was an entire state, a country with its apparatus, able to mold steel in a way that was specifically
27:57designed to penetrate American armor and kill Americans.
27:59This was not, oh, maybe we send them a couple of thoughts about how to build a bomb.
28:04This was Iran specifically passing technology and wherewithal and personnel into Iraq to kill Americans specifically.
28:12I know the number is said to be 600.
28:14A lot of us think it's higher than that, given the amount of capability they brought in.
28:18And so they have been at war with us, whether we acknowledge it or not, for 47 years.
28:23The same goes in Afghanistan.
28:24Name the Islamist enemy, whether they are Sunni or Shia, because this is a Shia regime, Sunni or Shia.
28:31And Iran's been willing to harbor them as long as that group is willing to try to kill Americans.
28:37So the enemy of their enemy has been their friend as well in the Islamist world.
28:41So Iran, whether it's Iraq, whether it's Afghanistan, whether it's around the world, has been targeting Americans.
28:46And what they wanted in this context and what President Trump would not tolerate is a regime of that nature
28:52being closer and closer to nuclear capabilities, a capability they would have said they would want to use.
28:59And we believe what our enemies say they would do if they got the most dangerous weapon in the world.
29:03So it's been across every theater that Iran's been been a threat to America.
29:08And sometimes we have to remind folks of that.
29:10But thank goodness we have a commander in chief who, on behalf of this country, has internalized that and said,
29:17hey, we're going to do something about it.
29:19Jerry, I do want to talk about the lessons learned question because it's important to me.
29:23I won't share particular tactical lessons, and the KC-135 incident is under investigation.
29:32But I do want to talk about how I think about this and how we think about it.
29:37And this is something that I'm pretty passionate about.
29:40I believe the joint force has to be a very fast learning organization, early, often, and always.
29:48And so in each case, both at the strategic, operational, and tactical level, we've charged the joint force to look
29:56at themselves and say, what was our plan?
29:58Well, first, did we have a plan, yes or no?
30:00The answer is always yes because we plan for literally everything.
30:04Did we execute our plan, yes or no?
30:06If we did, did it work?
30:08If not, why not?
30:09If we didn't execute our plan but did something better, what's the lesson learned associated with that?
30:15And then how do we quickly capture those lessons after every loss or every engagement and quickly adopt those lessons
30:25and then share them across the entirety of the joint force?
30:29And inside the joint staff, we've tasked our J-7 directorate under the lead of General Lieutenant General Liszewski, a
30:38United States Marine, to be extremely entrepreneurial in harvesting and capturing those lessons in a proactive and not reactive way.
30:47In fact, we've got teammates from the J-7 who are now spread out across the CENTCOM theater, both here
30:54in the States and forward, to ensure that in every opportunity, we do not miss a chance to grab that
31:02lesson and quickly accelerate it into the practice that we adopt inside the joint force,
31:07so that if there's a loss or if there's something that we can learn from, that we learn it not
31:12only in the CENTCOM AOR, but we adapt it across all of the combatant commands, not just into PACOM.
31:19And it's across all of the warfighting functions.
31:22I've asked them to look rigorously, to check our egos at the door, to remember this is about what's right,
31:30not who's right, and to be clinical around the way we look at lessons learned, because we owe it to
31:35the force to do that.
31:36Thanks for that question.
31:37Absolutely.
31:38Brown Jack at the back.
31:40Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
31:41Jonathan Dreyer with Roku Politics.
31:43As you said, at the end of this war, Iran will be without a missile or drone capability, a navy
31:47or the ability to make nuclear weapons.
31:49Since the largest threat and sponsor of terror in the region will be incapacitated, are there plans to move assets
31:56and troops out of the Middle East?
31:57I guess in a perfect world, a year after the war has ended, what does the military presence in the
32:03Middle East look like compared to before the war?
32:05Well, I appreciate the question.
32:07I do think when you address a real threat head on, it creates new options on the other side.
32:14I think what President Trump refuses to do, which too often this town does, is just sit in the status
32:20quo.
32:21Oh, nobody can do about that.
32:22They've got too much capability.
32:24What if this happens?
32:25What if that happens?
32:25He instead says, what's in the interest of the American people?
32:28It's going to take some courage.
32:30It's going to take some capabilities.
32:31We're going to have to gather some forces there in order to do it.
32:33We're not going to tell people how many or how long or what we're willing to do or what we're
32:37not willing to do.
32:39But if you do that and do that decisively, then out the other end is a recognition that it opens
32:44the aperture of what's possible.
32:45I mean, President Trump did the same thing in creating an opportunity for the Abraham Accords.
32:49Now you've got a situation where a lot of those countries are coming alongside us recognizing the threat of Iran.
32:55So I think our posture in the future will be based first and foremost on our own national security, power
33:02projection, the ability to defend our people and our interests.
33:05But no doubt, working alongside our partners, the President will look at what makes the most sense going forward.
33:11I appreciate that question.
33:12Yes, right here.
33:13Is that the policy of the U.S. military now?
33:15Excuse me.
33:15I didn't.
33:16Thank you, Secretary.
33:17Two questions for you.
33:19The Vice President has often emphasized that the goal of this war is to denuclearize Iran while also avoiding a
33:26larger quagmire.
33:27I know that you touched on this.
33:30I'd like you to expand on how do you do that?
33:32How do you denuclearize the country while also avoiding this, you know, forever war?
33:38And then there was a report last night that the Pentagon asked the White House for 200 billion for Iran
33:44war supplemental.
33:45Can you confirm this and can you explain why a package this large is necessary?
33:51Well, first of all, none of this would have been possible without Midnight Hammer, without that audacious mission with very
33:56clear goals that did obliterate their ability to enrich and the capabilities they have in those facilities.
34:01So it created the conditions for Iran to step forward and say, OK, you can reach out and touch us
34:06like that in our nuclear ambitions.
34:08You can see that we're still trying to do this.
34:10Let's make a deal.
34:11And the President Trump put our our two best folks on it, Steve and Jared, and they worked diligently, earnestly.
34:17I watched it to try to pursue that deal.
34:18And ultimately, I think the whole time Iran sort of said, well, we'll talk as we build more missiles and
34:25as we build more UAVs and we create this conventional umbrella so that if we chose to, we could try
34:31to reconstitute the program and sort of naively thinking that President Trump wouldn't do something about it.
34:37And that's why, as Secretary Rubio has said and I've said, it's the conventional umbrella that was growing and growing
34:43and growing that was meant to protect that nuclear capability.
34:46So you had to address both what happened with Midnight Hammer and what happened with that as well.
34:51As far as $200 billion, I think that number could move, obviously.
34:56It takes money to kill bad guys.
35:00So we're going back to Congress and folks there to ensure that we're properly funded for what's been done, for
35:07what we may have to do in the future.
35:09Ensure that our ammunition is everything's refilled and not just refilled, but above and beyond.
35:15I mean, President Trump, as he said, rebuilt the military in his first term, didn't think he'd use it as
35:19dynamically in his second, but he had.
35:21So thank goodness he did that.
35:22And an investment like this is meant to say, hey, we'll replace anything that was spent.
35:26And now that we're reviving our defense industrial base and rebuilding the arsenal of freedom and cutting deals like our
35:31great deputy secretaries here is doing long lead times on exquisite munitions.
35:36We're going to be refilled faster than anyone imagined.
35:39And I think, you know, we're also still dealing with the environment that Joe Biden created, which was which was
35:45depleting those stockholds and not sending them to our own military, but to Ukraine, which is when every time we
35:53reach back and look at any sort of a challenge we have, it goes back to, well, send it to
35:58Ukraine.
35:59Ultimately, we think this should be these these munitions are better spent in our own interests at this point.
36:05And this kind of funding bill is going to ensure that we're properly funded going forward.
36:10We'll take we'll take one more.
36:11Thanks, sir.
36:12Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
36:13Jordan Conradson with the Gateway Pundit.
36:15So with the strike yesterday on South Park's gas field, you know, if the US didn't know about it or
36:22didn't approve of it, it kind of seems like a trend of Israel apparently pursuing their own objectives.
36:30I'm not sure if you agree with that, but the president has said he doesn't want to hit Iran's oil
36:35infrastructure right now.
36:37As you said, the US avoided this on Park Island.
36:40Oil is nearing one hundred and twenty dollars.
36:42Why are we helping Israel prosecute this war if they're going to pursue their own objectives?
36:46We hold the cards.
36:48We have objectives.
36:50Those objectives are clear.
36:52We have allies pursuing objectives as well.
36:55And the truth speaks for itself.
36:56I mean, President Trump was very clear about that.
36:59Iran has weaponized energy for decades.
37:02Israel clearly sent a warning.
37:04And POTUS has made it clear.
37:06Very clear.
37:07Iran knows when you hit Karg Island and you hit military capabilities on Karg Island, which is the only thing
37:14we hit, we can hold anything at issue.
37:17Anything.
37:18The United States military controls the fate of that country.
37:21Iran has the ability to make the right choices.
37:24It should not, going forward, target Arab allies, Arab countries trying to create pain, the pain that they created themselves.
37:33Thank you all very much.
37:34Appreciate it.
37:34Thank you for your time.
37:39This is France 24, and you've just been listening to the U.S. Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, alongside the Chairman
37:44of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dan Cain, there in that briefing on the Iran war, which is now at
37:50almost the three-week point.
37:52Angela Diffley, our international affairs editor, was listening into that conference with me.
37:56Angela, a lot of focus there.
37:58Several times Pete Hegseth said, I'm speaking to the American people.
38:02What was he really trying to do with this press conference?
38:05Yeah, I think you could clearly see the shadow of Joe Kent's resignation on Monday or Tuesday.
38:10The head of the counterterrorism operation in the U.S., who said that he was resigning because he didn't think
38:16that there was any clear danger to the United States, any imminent danger.
38:21He didn't understand why this war was going ahead.
38:25Pete Hegseth saying very clearly, you do see that the United States, as, of course, any war or defence department
38:32would be doing, is targeting different audiences with its message.
38:35He said loud and clear there, I am speaking to the American people.
38:40And it was all about reminding the American people why Iran is a foe.
38:46The White House isn't too worried about the imminent danger element of Joe Kent's criticism, because that is very much
38:54a question of judgment.
38:56When does a danger become imminent?
38:59When does a danger become imminent?
38:59But they are very keen to remind the American people that Iran has for decades pronounced death to America.
39:07There have been numerous incidents over the decades where it has killed Americans, where it has armed groups to kill
39:14Americans.
39:15And it was about reminding them about all of that, and particularly in the light of the criticism by Joe
39:22Kent saying that, you know, he felt that Trump had just gone to war because the Israelis had pressured him
39:26to.
39:27So that was very important.
39:29This again, in stark contrast, very sober, very, very militarily, you know, here's my bracelet, the sacrifice of our comrades,
39:37this sort of thing.
39:38And this in stark contrast, there's been a lot of criticism of their video games, memes, which they're putting out
39:44on Internet, which is a very gung ho approach to war with Top Gun music, cartoon characters designed to appeal,
39:52it seems to young men.
39:53And they say so. And, you know, they are targeting different audiences.
39:57They say that is effective and that is working as well.
40:00He also talked about the fact that he was speaking directly to the American people because the American press were
40:08simply being too negative and in his words, unpatriotic.
40:12And, you know, the White House, we know Donald Trump does not like criticism from the press.
40:17He uses no opportunity to say the failing New York Times, et cetera, et cetera.
40:23But it is true that any country at war is nervous about its own domestic press and how the war
40:28is being portrayed.
40:30That is the fact always.
40:33And he there is a sort of code, but it is increasingly unclear in modern times.
40:39Domestic media try not to endanger their own soldiers in what they say.
40:44But of course, the shadow of the Iraq war is behind all of this.
40:47The American media feel they were not critical enough when the United States went to war with Iraq, that they
40:54were supine.
40:55And so they must be more critical this time around.
40:57So very critical of them.
41:00He also talked about the Europeans quick dig our ungrateful European allies.
41:04He certainly did.
41:06He also did not say I mean, he did say there was no timeframe at the moment.
41:10Only Donald Trump can decide when this war will come to an end.
41:13And he actually just had a quick word as well about previous negotiations that had taken place between the U
41:18.S. and Iran.
41:18Yeah. Only Donald Trump can decide when this war comes to an end.
41:22Well, you know, a war.
41:23This is at least a three way war and getting bigger, it appears.
41:27It is not entirely up to Donald Trump.
41:30Iran may continue.
41:31Israel may continue.
41:33So that is simply not the case.
41:36He talked about the negotiations and he basically said we did not trust the Iranians.
41:41Neither we did nor the Israelis did.
41:43We felt they were going ahead preparing their weapons grade nuclear material as they were engaged in talks.
41:53That is difficult to know whether that's the case or not.
41:56But equally, the Iranians have often it's often been said they did not trust the Americans.
42:01They thought the Americans, whatever the negotiations were intent on going to war with the Israelis, whatever the negotiations.
42:08So it does appear that neither side really trusted each other in those negotiations.
42:12He also talked about the Gulf states and whether or not they might become involved.
42:17Well, he didn't really.
42:17He said exactly what he said last week, which is that Gulf states are stepping up.
42:23We don't know what that means in the light of what's happened overnight, whether the more hawkish Gulf states will
42:30decide that the Gulf should take a more active role in this or whether other Gulf states might win an
42:37argument about restraint.
42:38We don't know where we are on that and he didn't give much away.
42:42Angela, thank you for that.
42:43France 24 is Angela Diffley.
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