"Fire Them All"
Pete Hegseth’s greatest hits
I read Pete Hegseth’s new book, so that you don’t have to. Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defense wrote an angry and vengeful book, The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Up Free, and it was published by his employer, Fox News. I read it in a hard copy, for I think its fiery language would have overheated my Kindle.
Kari Lake, twice-defeated candidate in Arizona, bragged that she was “Trump in heels.” Hegseth is Trump in combat boots. He exudes toughness, wants U.S. soldiers to be effective killers, disdains women, has a weak grasp of history, and wants to purge the military of people not like him. He is ruggedly handsome and proud of his tattoo-strewn body and his seven children, most of whom were conceived within marriage. What’s not to like about this man?
Hegseth is a DEI pick
His book is a diatribe against Pentagon policies to expand diversity, equity, and inclusion [DEI] in its workforce. Chapter 8 shouts in all caps SUPPORTING DEI MEANS SOLDIERS DIE. In fact, he seems well-qualified as a DEI candidate for Secretary of Defense.
During Trump’s first administration observers noted that the easiest way to get the president to approve something was to show it was: The First, The Biggest, or Obama did the Opposite.
Hegseth would be the first SecDef without high level government or corporate experience. He never rose above the rank of major and was denied his final post because he was deemed an extremist. He has the biggest family [7 children] and more wives [3] than any of his predecessors. And since Obama [and even Trump himself] chose men with significant government service as SecDef , Hegseth is a rejection of that norm.
So Hegseth is diverse (not like his predecessors), gains equity by being promoted from his field grade rank, and shows that even the unqualified can be included in the ranks of leaders.
Hegseth doesn’t understand the Constitution
Despite his frequent invocation of the oath U.S. officials take to support the Constitution (rather than any particular person such as the president), Hegseth doesn’t really understand that sacred document.
Today, we have a general-class divorced from this truth [about the Constitution]. They serve other masters. They serve ideological politicians, upside-down regulations, Ivy League graduate degrees, and opportunistic defense contractors. The next president of the United States needs to fire them all – or at least most of them – and install leaders with real fidelity to the Constitution.
No. The U.S. military have faithfully followed the Constitution throughout our history. The exceptions, as in the case of Douglas MacArthur, are few and well-known. Senior officers have carried out the orders of their civilian secretaries and the president even when they disagreed with them. They have accepted the dual civilian controls, from the president and from Congress. Despite pressures to show political loyalty to the president and his party, they have tried to remain apolitical, at least while on active service.
That’s what the Constitution requires. That’s why the military integrated the services on the order of President Truman. That’s why they first allowed gay service members under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell law passed by Congress and later allowed open service when that law was repealed. Opening opportunities for women was the law and the policy in several administrations, so military leaders acted accordingly.
Does Hegseth really want the alternative: where the military refuse to carry out lawful civilian orders or where they sabotage civilian policies with impunity?
Hegseth devalues women in uniform
Hegseth’s performative masculinity is over the top.
Dads push us to take risks. Moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat units.
In the modern world the nations that utilize women in combat the most are usually totalitarian nations (save for Israel).
It’s interesting that, while he admits that Israel has women in combat roles, he offers no evidence that that has turned the IDF into an incompetent force.
While he acknowledges the service of black Americans, he bemoans the drop in recruitment of white kids [from 44,000 in 2018 to 25,000 in 2023] and suggests that diversity makes white kids less willing to serve.
Hegseth prioritizes the culture war over the real enemies America faces
On page 5, he wrote: “The Left captured the military quickly, and we must reclaim it at a faster pace. We must wage a frontal assault. A swift counterattack, in broad daylight.”
On page 205 of his book, Hegseth says: “America today is in a cold civil war. Our soul is under attack by a confederacy of radicals.”
The war that matters to Hegseth is the culture war.
The so-called elites directing the military today aren’t just lowering standards and focusing on the wrong enemy; they are overtly working to rid the military of this specific (essential) type pf young patriot. They believe power is bad, merit is unfair, ideology is more important than industriousness, white people are yesterday, and safety! Is better than risk-taking. …
Yet today’s troops are being harassed by obligatory training – and eventually “standards” – grounded in Critical Race Theory, radical sex theories, gender policies, and “domestic extremism” that are designed to neuter our fighting forces.
He thinks the left’s goal is: “We will not stop until trans-lesbian black females run everything.”
That’s a highly distorted view of reality. Consider the Commission on the National Defense Strategy, a bipartisan panel of experts established by Congress. It argues that the United States faces an urgent moment of peril and needs to act.
The threats the United States faces are the most serious and most challenging the nation has encountered since 1945 and include the potential for near-term major war. The United States last fought a global conflict during World War II, which ended nearly 80 years ago. The nation was last prepared for such a fight during the Cold War, which ended 35 years ago. It is not prepared today. …
The U.S. public are largely unaware of the dangers the United States faces or the costs (financial and otherwise) required to adequately prepare. They do not appreciate the strength of China and its partnerships or the ramifications to daily life if a conflict were to erupt. They are not anticipating disruptions to their power, water, or access to all the goods on which they rely. They have not internalized the costs of the United States losing its position as a world superpower. A bipartisan “call to arms” is urgently needed so that the United States can make the major changes and significant investments now rather than wait for the next Pearl Harbor or 9/11. The support and resolve of the American public are indispensable.
Nowhere in its 132-page report can one find the words “diversity,” “equity,” or “inclusion.” China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are the real threats that the United States – and the Department of Defense – have to deal with. To launch a war against the military for following civilian orders is to guarantee defeat by a foreign foe.
Hegseth will be Secretary of Deference – to Trump’s whims
Like Trump, Hegseth believes that the military are out to get him. Their agreed response is a purge. His book says only that Trump “needs to fire them all,” but other advisers are already drawing up purge lists and planning a board to weed out the woke.
Hegseth is especially critical of the female Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti, for having no combat experience, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force General “CQ” Brown. Never mind that Trump first named Brown Air Force Chief of Staff. Hegseth now charges that Brown was so busy imposing DEI policies that the Air Force suffered.
You think CQ Brown will think intuitively about external threats and internal readiness? No chance. He built his generalship dutifully pursuing the radical positions of left-wing politicians, who in turn rewarded him with promotions.
Brown instructed all [USAF] institutions to “develop a diversity and inclusion plan” aimed at achieving specific racial quotas. He wanted 67.5% white officer candidates and 13% black. “Governor George Wallace would be proud. … Sounds pretty racist to me,” says Hegseth.
Congress gave the JCS members four-year terms to insulate them from political pressures. While the president has the legal authority to fire them, it would be a dangerous precedent to remove them for following the orders of their civilian bosses.
Hegseth and Trump want to impose their own political-cultural order on the military. They disparage military leaders in order to intimidate them. Hegseth actually says, “We are led by cowards, in and out of uniform.”
It’s not brave to use political coercion. It’s not brave to punish proven warriors. It’s not brave to demean the service of women. It’s foolish and dangerous.
I hope the Senate rejects this nomination.