Some of the crew of the sunken Dena being prepared in Iran for a mass public funeral. (Iran government photo)
Right at the launching of the US and Israeli war on Iran, itself a major war crime, the US fired a precision strike with a Tomahawk missile on an elementary school building. Some 160 girls aged 7-12 were killed, either by the powerful blast or by the collapse of the two story concrete structure. Asked about the tragedy and slaughter of innocents, Commander-in-Chief Trump, after initially pleading innocence. He later suggested it was the Iranians, whose missiles he claimed “are often inaccurate.”
When later videos appeared showing the distinct image of a Tomahawk missile striking, he slithered over to another lie, calling the Tomahawk a “generic missile that many countries have bought and can buy.”
The truth? The Tomahawk is a US missile made in the US and is strictly controlled, and offered only to a few trusted allies like Britain and Australia.
Hegseth avoided Trump’s brazen lying by saying, “The Pentagon is investigating,” even as investigators said the gruesome slaughter was looking increasingly likely to have been the US’s fault. When that investigation finally concluded definitively that Pentagon targeters had been using eight-year-old maps that allegedly identified the building as an office for the Revolutionary Guard, though — whether true or not — neither “no mercy” Hegseth nor “no truth” Trump could not find it in themselves to express remorse or regret about the “mistake. ” Three weeks later they still have not.
We saw the same callousness from both men in the case of he sinking of a Iranian Navy frigate by two huge torpedoes fired at the vessel off the southern tip of the island nation of Sri Lanka. As I wrote in an article on March 7, the Dena was in an unusual situation: It was invited to participate in the MILAN Fleet Review, an annual event that brings together naval vessels, crews and officers of the navies of dozens of countries (this year there were 74 participating countries including Iran and the US. At the time the Dena set sail for and participated in joint exercises with vessels of other countries at the event the two nations were not fighting each other. In fact, the US, which did not send a ship to the event, but did send an admiral, as wall as a P-81 Poseidon, a sophisticated sea patrol aircraft equipped to spot and track vessels including submarines over wide areas of ocean. That aircraft actually conducted an exercise with the Dena, a ship that it almost certainly already was tasked to sink once the US and Israel concluded their all-out war on Iran, no doubt picking up all kinds of useful knowledge about the Iranian ship’s capabilities, its radar and communications systems, etc.
Once the Fleet Review event had ended and the US-Israel assault on Iran had been launched, the Poseidon followed and tracked the Dena as it sailed towards a planned stop at a port at the southern end of Sri Lanka where, unknown to the Dena, a US nuclear fast attack sub, the Charlotte was waiting, submerged, with two huge torpedoes ready to sink the ship
The attack came without warning at 5:08 am on May 4. No effort was made by the sub to notify the ship that it was a bout to be blown up, which the US sub could easily done at a safe distance.
To make matters worse, after sinking the ship in two minutes with two torpedo hits the US sb left the scene of the attack. 87 sailers died in the attack, some certainly from the huge blasts ,and some no doubt of drowning while waiting two hours without flotation in the open ocean for rescue ships of the Sri Lankan Navy, moored 20 miles away, to arrive. Only 32 of the crew survived the attack, with over a dozen missing and presumed dead. The attack has been criticized a “treacherous act,” given that the Dena was not in a war zone, had gone to an India-hosted event dedicated to “peace and friendship,” was likely not armed or only lightly armed because of an Indian stipulation that participating ships be unarmed, and because in any event there was no way the ship could have joined the battle with Iran’s military in the Persian Gulf, where US and Israeli air forces have total control of the air over Iran and the waters around it. The Dena would have had no choice but to remain in a safe harbor until that war ended (whenever that is!).
All Americans heard about this incident in their news reports on the Dena’s destruction was Hegseth’s ugly boast: “This was never meant to be a fair fight, and it’s not a fair fight…We are punching them while they’re down, and that’s exactly how it should be.”
Except that abandoning injured enemy soldiers or sailors to die after a battle is over is a war crime.
It will be interesting to see what awards get handed by out to the officers and crew of the Charlotte for this “heroic” naval engagement.
The post Trump and Hegseth: Two Souless Men Incapable of Remorse or Even Pity appeared first on Dissident Voice.
This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Dave Lindorff.
Dave Lindorff | Radio Free (2026-03-21T15:14:40+00:00) Trump and Hegseth: Two Souless Men Incapable of Remorse or Even Pity. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2026/03/21/trump-and-hegseth-two-souless-men-incapable-of-remorse-or-even-pity/
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