Misquoted Bible? Strong criticism of Pete Hegseth

Trump’s Secretary of War

His religious anger no longer knows any bounds

Trump’s defense minister likes to prove himself to be a martial rhetorician. But there is plenty of criticism for Pete Hegseth’s latest appearance.

Pete Hegseth loves the martial appearance. Not only did the US Secretary of Defense rename his house the War Department as one of his first official acts, but in a speech to the assembled generals of the US armed forces he invoked the troops’ new fighting spirit, a spirit that should meet the “highest male standards”. He also threatened the Iranian regime with “overwhelming destruction in the name of Jesus Christ” if it did not bow to the US government’s demands.

Things turned out differently. The mullahs’ regime in Tehran has not yet bowed to a single demand from the Trump administration. On the contrary, the White House is now talking about excellent negotiations with the Iranian hardliners. President Trump announced on Thursday that a peace agreement was within reach. Nevertheless, Defense Minister Hegseth continues to enjoy filling his office with pithy sayings. This happened on Wednesday at a service at the Pentagon.

Then the 45-year-old minister suddenly quoted a monologue from the film “Pulp Fiction.” The action thriller by director Quentin Tarantino describes, among other things, the two cold-blooded contract killers Jules Winnfield (Samuel L. Jackson) and Vincent Vega (John Travolta) in their daily work. A particularly gruesome scene from the film gained cult status among film fans: Shortly before Winnfield shoots a small-time drug dealer in his apartment, he quotes a supposed verse from the Bible: The passage is supposedly Ezekiel 25:17.

Hegseth now quoted that same monologue to the believers in the Ministry of Defense and asked them to pray together with him. Then he spoke these words: “The path of the downed flyer is surrounded on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed be he who, in the name of fellowship and duty, leads the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will descend with great vengeance and mighty wrath on those who seek to capture and destroy my brother, and you will know that my call sign is Sandy1 when I take my revenge on you.

There is a video of Hegseth’s appearance (see above), which immediately attracted numerous comments on social media. Because the Pentagon chief modified the monologue from “Pulp Fiction” at crucial points. As Tarantino’s script says, “The path of the righteous is surrounded on all sides by the injustices of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men.” With Hegseth this became: “The path of the crashed plane…”. Hegseth also modified the text elsewhere, with reference to the fact that the Bible passage he quoted was used in prayer by the US special command that rescued the US Air Force pilot who crashed in Iran in a spectacular action. The elite unit uses the military identification symbol “Sandy1”.