Hegseth: “Having just returned from Dover [Delaware] last night, our troops and their families and the enormous sacrifice that they make is certainly heavy on my mind. So I’ll close with Scripture, drawing strength from Psalm 144.

“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle. He is my loving God, and my fortress. My stronghold and my deliverer, my shield in whom I take refuge,” [Hegseth] continued, ending the verse before switching to his own prayer.

While it’s a lovely verse traditionally attributed to King David, it does not accurately portray the reality of the situation whatsoever. The United States is the Goliath of this story, along with Israel. The countries’ joint attacks of aggression have killed over 1,200 Iranians, many of them young schoolgirls. Iranian fuel depots were hit so hard that oil rained from the sky in Tehran on Sunday. Seven American service members have died because a president who promised peace sent them to war for money and regime change, not liberation. Listening to Hegseth read Psalm 144 feels like an ominous justification for further aggression rather than a comforting message.

“May the Lord grant unyielding strength and refuge to our warriors, unbreakable protection to them in our homeland, and total victory over those who seek to harm them,” Hegseth concluded. “Amen.”

The Lord your loving fortress rock thinks you're an asshole, Pete. And he doesn't think anybody's an asshole.