WASHINGTON FREE BEACON: .......-------------------------....... https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!UT2q!,w_1100,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fdf166a81-d405-4edd-8fd1-7e0dd2018fd7_4584x3056.jpeg Pete Hegseth (Win McNamee/Getty Images) If you had to predict who the Trump administration would want in front of the public messaging the war against Iran, Secretary of War Hegseth “might not have leaped immediately to the top of a conventional wisdom-driven list,” writes the Free Beacon’s Ira Stoll. But if and when the United States and Israel win the war, part of the reason will be the success of Hegseth “in communicating directly to the American people and to the troops.” Stoll writes: Whether you catch Hegseth on an old-fashioned television or in a livestream pop-out window on the X app on a smartphone, the message is clear and consistent. Rather than get drawn into Vietnam-War style 5 p.m. follies of daily briefings, Hegseth and Caine have come out somewhat sparingly. They’ve been careful about keeping the press questions limited; the point of the briefings isn’t to make journalists famous, it’s to let Hegseth communicate to the country. Choose your preferred modifier—relentless, robotic—Hegseth stays on message, with short sentences, simple language, hammering the ideas home to the audience like another bombing sortie against enemy targets. One somewhat refreshing thing is that he talks, unburdened by political correctness, about killing the enemy. “Our warriors have fought with lethality,” he said March 13. He is unsparing in describing the targets. “Rats,” he called Iran’s leadership. “Barbaric savages.” “Terrorist cowards.” He’s been nearly as derisive toward the Pentagon press. “A dishonest and anti-Trump press will stop at nothing, we know this at this point, to downplay progress, amplify every cost and call into question every step. Sadly, TDS is in their DNA. They want President Trump to fail, but you, the American people, know better,” he said March 19. He called a CNN report “fundamentally unserious,” and said, “The sooner David Ellison takes over that network, the better.” In the end the outcome of the war will be up to the brave people of Iran, to seize a better future for their country. It will be up to the U.S. and Israeli militaries and intelligence operations people and to the president and prime minister. But if Hegseth can help buy them all more time by projecting confidence and fighting the “quagmire” narrative from the press, it will help maximize the chance of success. The risk for Hegseth is if it doesn’t work out he gets blamed. Trump could cut him loose the way he did with Kristi Noem. But there’s upside, too. Hegseth, 45, was on the couch in the Oval Office this afternoon right alongside Vice President Vance and Secretary of State Rubio, who are thought of as presidential material. If this war ends in an American victory it may be the first of more wins ahead for Pete Hegseth. READ MORE: Pete Hegseth Is Having a Good War