Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech to senior military officers in Virginia Tuesday was not only conduct unbecoming a former major of the Army National Guard, it was dangerous.
The former Fox News co-host forced hundreds of the nation’s highest-ranked military officials to leave their posts around the world on short notice to gather in Quantico for a speech that felt like a cross between a political rally and an old Friars Club roast.
He excoriated crowd of decorated veterans who have braved battlefields and made life-or-death decisions noting that some of them are overweight, criticized other troops as “dudes in dresses,” dismissed “climate change worship,” all while appearing to endorse hazing of new recruits and possibly even committing war crimes.
The speech was a violation of the sacred line between civilian control and and military professionalism.
The speech was a disgrace, a violation of the sacred line between civilian control and and military professionalism that only undermined Hegseth’s own authority. But it was also an ominous sign of how the president and his so-called secretary of war view the troops as little more than pawns in their political dramas.
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