#MilitaryTok reactions to Iran war stray from White House messaging: ‘Now I’m regretting everything’

As Trump's administration aims to bring warrior culture' back to the military, young service members express anxiety and snark online over potential deployment

If posts coming from the White House were to be believed, the US-Israel war on Iran looks something like scenes from Top Gun, Braveheart and Deadpool - or how a fifth-grade boy might imagine combat. The Trump administration has also presented Operation Epic Fury as a video game, borrowing gen Z parlance to describe the US armed forces as locked in" on the conflict.

Such macho posturing squares with secretary of defense Pete Hegseth's desire to bring warrior culture" back to the military. The former Fox News host has railed against DEI, fat troops" and beardos" (troops with beards), and envisioned a military full of the right people" who fit his imposed standards of virility and masculinity.