Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth used the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks to honor the 184 people killed at the Pentagon and to frame the ongoing U.S. military campaign against Iran as the same fight that began a quarter-century ago.

Standing at the site where American Airlines Flight 77 struck the building on the morning of September 11, 2001, Hegseth delivered a blunt message Friday: the threat from Islamic terrorism did not end when the towers fell, and it has not ended now. He warned that enemies "plot to curb our power and kill our citizens" every day, and pointed to six months of U.S. military operations against Iran as proof the country is still willing to fight back.

The ceremony came as the war with Iran has stretched past seven months, cost $37.5 billion in military spending, and claimed 18 American servicemember lives, according to National Review. Hegseth used the anniversary not just to mourn, but to make the case that the campaign against Tehran is a direct extension of the post-9/11 war on terror, a framing that carries political weight as costs mount and the conflict grinds on.

A downpour, a flag, and a reading of 184 names

Before Hegseth spoke, the Pentagon marked the morning the way it has for a generation. A giant American flag was unfurled on the side of the building where the hijacked plane hit. Hegseth stood outside in a downpour alongside top military officials to watch it come down, according to the Associated Press.

President Trump attended the Pentagon ceremony for the second consecutive year. The names of all 184 victims, those killed inside the building and aboard Flight 77, were read aloud.

Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also addressed the gathering. Caine told attendees that the day "is not just a story of loss" but "also a story of great American courage, selfless service and those who've made the choice to carry those memories forward."

Ceremonies were held simultaneously at the 9/11 Memorial in New York and the Flight 93 National Memorial in Pennsylvania. The 9/11 Memorial & Museum noted that nearly 100 million Americans were born after the 2001 attacks, a figure that underscores how much of the country has no firsthand memory of that morning, according to Fox News.

Hegseth's leadership at the Pentagon has been defined by action, not caution. He has halted Army promotions for officers linked to removed generals, reshaping the service's leadership pipeline in ways that have drawn both praise and pushback.

Hegseth ties Iran directly to the legacy of September 11

The heart of Hegseth's remarks was a direct line from the 2001 attacks to the current conflict with Tehran. He did not treat the anniversary as a backward-looking memorial. He treated it as a case for the war the country is fighting right now.

Hegseth told the audience at the Pentagon:

"Over the past six months, we have laid waste to the world's most prolific state sponsor of terrorism. Our warriors have fought an Islamic theocracy that has wished us death for nearly half a century, that cheered on 9/11."

The State Department has long designated Iran a state sponsor of terrorism. Hegseth's remarks went further, casting the regime as a thread running through decades of attacks on Americans, from the 1979 hostage crisis through the roadside bombs that killed U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He cited the regime's sponsorship of terrorist attacks against Americans "for decades, killing thousands, including our comrades in Iraq, in Afghanistan," according to AP News. That framing places the Iran campaign squarely inside the post-9/11 war on terror rather than treating it as a separate conflict, a distinction that matters for public support and congressional authority.

The broader leadership shakeup at the Pentagon has been significant. A top Army commander in Europe stepped down after Hegseth removed him, part of a pattern of personnel moves that have reshaped the military's senior ranks.

$37.5 billion, 18 lives, and a vow to finish the fight

Hegseth's rhetoric was confident. He claimed the U.S. has "killed their leaders, destroyed their air force" and said Iran's navy "rests at the bottom of the sea." He declared that American forces "control the strait", a reference to the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a large share of the world's oil passes.

He was direct about what comes next:

"We're still sending terrorists where they belong, to hell, and tankers to the bottom of the ocean where they belong. And we are ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. The economic pressure tightens every day. We control the strait. We will finish this fight."

The Trump administration has committed to preventing Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Hegseth's language suggested the campaign is far from over, even as costs have already reached $37.5 billion and 18 American servicemembers have been killed, per National Review's reporting.

Those numbers sit alongside Hegseth's claims of sweeping military success. Whether the American public views the campaign as a justified continuation of the war on terror or as a costly new conflict will shape the political debate in the months ahead.

That debate plays out against a backdrop of internal friction. Top military commanders formally opposed extending Iran war deployments, a disagreement that surfaced through classified records and revealed tension between civilian leadership and uniformed officers over the pace and scope of the campaign.

'It changed America, not as the cowards had hoped'

Hegseth's remarks also carried a tone of defiance aimed at the attackers themselves. He told the audience that the September 11 attacks "changed America not as the cowards had hoped. It inspired millions."

He described the men and women in uniform as "the top 1% of Americans" and said the country "sleeps in peace because we know they stand ready." He closed by urging the nation to honor the fallen "by living worthy of their legacy today, and for 250 more years."

Hegseth has backed that language with action. He awarded upgraded valor medals to three Abbey Gate Marines on the fifth anniversary of the Kabul airport attack, a gesture that resonated with veterans and Gold Star families who felt the previous administration had failed to properly recognize the sacrifice.

Retired Maj. Gen. Bert Mizusawa, who witnessed the Pentagon attack firsthand, recalled looking out his window and observing "the plume of smoke rising from the attack on the Pentagon," according to Fox News. Twenty-five years later, the building still bears the weight of that morning, and the decisions made in its name.

Hegseth's speech was not subtle. He drew a straight line from the ashes of September 11 to the deck of an Iranian warship at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Whether that line holds up under scrutiny is a question for Congress and the historians. But the message to America's enemies was plain enough: the country that buried 2,977 of its own on a single Tuesday morning has not lost its willingness to hit back.

A nation that forgets what happened 25 years ago will not be ready for what comes next. Hegseth, whatever his critics say, does not intend to let it forget.