OP-ED: Hegseth damaging the American military
Pete Hegseth was a weekend Fox News anchor who said the Army “spit him out” in 2021 (his crusader tattoos were an issue); he was in Iraq as part of the National Guard but never rose above the rank of major. If Donald Trump were not such a consumer of Fox News, Hegseth would never be considered for a position as important as the Secretary of Defense.
Hegseth is damaging the American military.
Hegseth thinks violence (“maximum lethality, not tepid legality”) leads to military success. In Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Iran, we failed to achieve victory, but it was not for the lack of violence. Hegseth’s performative masculinity is not the key to military success.
A few years ago the political right became enthralled by the Russian military because they were seen as tough and willing to do the cruel things necessary to achieve victory that our “soft” society was keeping our military from doing. The fact that the Ukrainian military, which is filled with middle-aged soldiers, has not only successfully resisted being conquered by a much larger army but has adapted to the changing conditions of modern warfare so successfully that they are inflicting horrendous casualties on the Russians, has proven once again that winning wars is not a test of which soldiers can do the most push-ups.
Hegseth thinks trying to avoid civilian casualties is “woke,” and “warriors” don’t worry about such things (he gutted the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Office, which tries to minimize civilian casualties, in spite of his commanders’ opposition). Gen. Stanley McChrystal explained that in Iraq and Afghanistan, “insurgent math” meant that each non-combatant killed created more than 10 additional combatants. More violence can be counterproductive.
Hegseth likes to talk tough: “We will keep pushing, keep advancing, no quarter, no mercy for our enemies.” In addition to “no quarter” being illegal under the Geneva Convention, George Washington proved during the Revolutionary War that treating prisoners well is actually good strategy. Soldiers fight a lot harder if they know surrender will bring torture and death; treating prisoners fairly encourages the enemy to surrender.
Hegseth has advocated pardoning war criminals (like Clint Lorance, who ordered fire on Afghan civilians and was turned in by his battle-tested platoon), and decimated the Judge Advocate General’s office that provides lawyers to help the armed forces abide by the law (and punish those who break it). A lack of attention to what Hegseth calls “stupid rules of engagement” and international law is what leads to atrocities that undermine support for the war and strengthen the enemy’s resolve.
As a former TV host, Hegseth focuses on his image, going so far as banning photographers from his press conferences because he thought the photographs they used of him were unflattering. He gives speeches in front of a Patton-like American flag and uses catchy phrases (saying his actions will have “violent effect, not politically correct,” e.g.). While the Trump administration claims to be “transparent” and in favor of free speech, Hegseth banned the conventional press from most of the Pentagon because they would not agree to getting prior approval for their stories. When Stars and Stripes, a government-funded independent news source for the troops reported on the troubles faced by the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln, Hegseth fired the journalists associated with the story and the publisher.
Hegseth also purged a lot of the top brass who he thought were not sufficiently loyal to the president, many of whom were Black or female. His focus on minorities is part of his culture war against DEI. One of the reasons the armed forces used DEI was that it found that when the military was comprised of white male officers and largely minority enlisted soldiers it was less effective than when the officer corps more closely resembled the soldiers.
Hegseth is trying to politicize the armed forces, which violates a basic tenet of the U.S. military; it is an apolitical institution. History is filled with countries where the military takes political sides leading to endless instability and violence. To avoid that, promotions are done by promotions boards and the secretaries of military departments, not the (politically appointed) Secretary of Defense. Pentagon regulations limit removal from promotions to specific issues (moral, mental or professional deficiencies). Hegseth argues that “every officer serves at the pleasure of the president.” While Hegseth claims to want warriors, he has purged some of the military’s greatest warriors.
As part of Hegseth’s performative violence to deter America’s enemies, he announced the Army would livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, who killed 13 people and wounded 32 more in his terrorist attack at Fort Hood. Most people were appalled at the idea of broadcasting the execution of an old man in a wheelchair, and Trump eventually got enough pushback to cancel it. But that demonstrates how Hegseth’s focus on violence undermines his effectiveness. How could he not understand that a terrorist, who intended to die a martyr in his attack, would want his execution publicized? Terrorists would use the public execution as a recruitment tool.
Hegseth likes to refer to the military as “the real one percent” and cultivates the idea that the military he envisions will be separate from the rest of society (“no fatties, no trannies, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals”). America’s democracy is stronger with citizen-soldiers taking up arms reluctantly when necessary, not a separate warrior class.
Hegseth thinks because the U.S. military is the most powerful military that ever existed; it can do whatever the U.S. wants. This hubris led Hegseth to advocate for the attack on Iran, which was supposed to be a quick victory but instead had turned into a disaster with no end in sight.
While Hegseth relishes war, historic American soldiers (Washington, Grant, Eisenhower) were all reluctant warriors because they knew the limitations and the costs of military action.
Hegseth’s performative masculinity hurts our military effectiveness and undermines our status in the world. He needs to go.
Kent James, of East Washington, has a doctorate in history and policy from Carnegie Mellon University.