President Donald J Trump nominated Fox News Friends & Family Weekend co-host Pete Hegseth to become the Secretary of Defense. He is a warrior and a passionate and vocal supporter of the warrior class.
Trump considered Hegseth to become the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs in Trump’s first term as President and has a warm and cordial relationship with him, reported to often seek his counsel on matters relating to the military.
Hegseth is an outspoken critic of the military, particularly the general officer corps who he accuses of having lost their focus and being distracted by pronouns, DEI, CRT, transgender accomodation, women in combat units, and other policies under the heading of “woke.” He believes the military requires a complete reorganization focusing solely on lethality.
I tend to agree with that assessment and would throw into the mix a dialog as to how the US lost the war in Afghanistan and managed to be defeated by a third world, ragtag, light infantry whilst enjoying overwhelming numerical superiority, fire power, air domination, intelligence, and a cornucopia of weapons.
The Sec Def oversees the leadership and management of a government department with 3,000,000 employees (soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen and civilians — regulars, reserves, National Guard), five thousand military sites worldwide, an $800,000,000,000 annual budget, and control of the nation’s nuclear weapons deployment.
This also includes a massive weapons development and procurement operation and the requirement to coordinate with sovereign allies in important defense alliances world wide.
It is a big, tough, and critical job.
Pete Hegseth is an impressive man who at age 44 has degrees from Princeton (undergrad in politics) and a masters in public policy from Harvard University’s JFK School of Government.
Displeased with Harvard’s lurch left, Hegseth famously mailed his degree back to Harvard. He is a confident, opinionated, and articulate person who is persuasive in his strongly held views. I like the guy.
Hegseth is an Army veteran (infantry officer) who served in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, and was awarded two Bronze Stars and a Combat Infantryman’s Badge signifying his participation in active combat. He served as a National Guard officer, a major, and is currently retired.
In Hegseth’s criticism of the military, he has taken a number of positions that are at odds with the general officer corps including believing women do not belong in combat as it compromises the fighting capabilities and leadership of combat units and an antipathy to many “woke” initiatives under both Obama and Biden. I agree with this position.
Trump, famously, had a tenuous relationship with the Department of Defense and relieved his first Sec Def, Maddog Mattis, a 4-star Marine general with whom he had a virulent disagreement over the issue of ending the US involvement with the Kurds in the Middle East.
In retrospect, Trump was correct and General Mattis was wrong. The Big Red Car always thought Maddog was a bit of a blowhard and a poseur. The Army is quite divided on the issue of wokeness.
Hegseth is a published author having written the following well received books:
Battle for the American Mind (June 2022 written with David Goodwin)
Modern Warriors (Nov 2022, NYT best seller)
American Crusade (May 2020)
In The Arena (Feb 2017)
They are all worth a read. No Hemingway, but well-written tomes expressing an identifiable viewpoint with clarity and persuasion.
On the personal front, Hegseth has been married three times and is currently married to a Fox News person with whom he had a baby whilst still married to Wife #2. They have seven kids and live in Nashville.
The job of Secretary of Defense is one of the top three most challenging jobs in the Executive Branch — POTUS, Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense.
It requires a broad view of the world and managerial experience in running a huge — bloody gigantic — organization.
Hegseth does not have the life experience, the management experience, the specific defense industry experience to do justice to this position. He is following in the wake of men like George C Marshal and Robert Gates who had massive experience before they undertook the job.
Hegseth has a limited view — an important view as I personally agree with his assessment that there is a legion of politically sensitive generals who all need to go — of the responsibilities at a time when the world is awash with numerous dangerous challenges: Ukraine, the Middle East, the Russia-China alliance, the North Korea-Russia love affair, and Iran.
This is not the time for On The Job Training and a rookie. Sorry.
On the other hand, I do want to say: Presidents are entitled to have their administrations staffed and run by the people the President wants. Donald Trump has clearly indicated his willingness to use “recess appointments” — an appointment made whilst the Senate is in recess and which is a pathway around the issue of confirmation for up to two years — and he is likely to get whomever he wants.
I think Donald Trump has allowed his personal enmity toward the general officer corps, the woke general officer corps, to blind his judgement and he is tasking someone — who I think is a good man, but not ready to be Sec Def — with whom he has an idealogical connection (and as I said, I agree with them), but who does not have the right set of skills to succeed in that job.
I predict the Senate will NOT confirm Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense and I believe he is not the right person for that job.
But, hey, what the Hell do I really know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.
