Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued troops a book in which President Donald Trump promises not to ask them to "fight dumb Wars" as the U.S. wages war on Iran.
The 144-page book went to the 600 troops attending Hegseth's speech on Wednesday, ABC News reporter Steven Beynon reported on X.
The book collects some of Hegseth's speeches under a cover reading "The War Department" and "Field Manual," according to photos Beynon posted.
With his vow not to fight "dumb wars" in the foreword, Trump wrote that "reestablishing the DEPARTMENT OF WAR is much more than a name change."
The book's message echoes a recent Truth Social post.
"Our goal is PEACE, which is why we prepare for War — Especially the Wars of the future," Trump's post said. "As your Commander-in-Chief, I will not ask you to fight dumb Wars."
"I will unleash you to be violent, lethal and unstoppable — and I will always have your back. Godspeed, Great Warriors. Thank you for your attention to this matter!"
Hegseth delivered Wednesday's "State of the Force" address at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, where he attacked news coverage of the war in Iran, Bloomberg reported. The war is nearly seven months old with no clear end.
"A free press is of course important, but partisan activism that intentionally smears the troops and the historic mission that they are undertaking is fundamentally anti-American," Hegseth said, according to video of the remarks posted by the news account OSINT613. "It's sick. It's a national betrayal. It's treason."
"Allow me to lay it out simply for the anti-American losers in our media," Hegseth said, according to The Independent. "As you know, the information space, it's a battle space. Yet our so-called press makes Iranian state media look reasonable."
He also announced that the military will cut 20% of its admirals and generals, the outlet reported.
The manual also includes the transcript of Hegseth's September 2025 speech to generals and admirals, The Independent reported. He gave that speech at Quantico a year to the day before Wednesday's address, according to The Washington Post.
"Good morning and welcome to the War Department. Because the era of the Department of Defense is over," Hegseth said in that address.
The book also includes Hegseth's January 2026 speech at SpaceX's Starbase site in Texas, according to a page Beynon photographed.
"And what you have built, and what you will build here, is a testament to the strength of American ingenuity and American invention," Hegseth told SpaceX founder Elon Musk and his team.
"I wrote for three cabinet secretaries and we never printed and bound something like this," Luke Schleusener, a former speechwriter for Defense Secretaries Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel and Ashton Carter, wrote on X while sharing Beynon's post. "It's beneath the dignity of the office."
"Tries to convince American grunts that the media is 'treasonous' — said grunts immediately go 'haha, what the f—'s wrong with this guy' and send copies of his book to journalists," James Griffin, who runs the Analytica Camillus account and describes himself as a defense analyst, wrote on X.
"习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想," Pat Dennis, president of the Democratic opposition research super PAC American Bridge 21st Century, wrote on X, posting the Chinese name of "Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era," the Chinese Communist Party's official ideology.
Military historian Bret Devereaux, a teaching assistant professor at North Carolina State University, argued in a March post on his blog that the Iran war was "an unwise gamble on extremely long odds."
"And this war is dumb as hell," Devereaux wrote.