This week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth dropped the hammer on military leadership.
He called hundreds of generals and flag officers to Quantico for a sit-down where he told them that the era of “woke” is over, and he wants everyone in the military to meet the same physical standards.
While the generals and admirals looked on in apparent shock, few have said anything publicly, so the Democrats are taking it upon themselves to express all the outrage on behalf of everyone.
During the meeting, Hegseth made it clear that former President Joe Biden's way of doing things was now relegated to the history books.
He stated, "The era of politically correct, overly sensitive, don't-hurt-anyone's-feelings leadership ends right now.” He also discussed the use of one physical standard for all troops, and if that meant that some women and weaker men would no longer qualify, well, “so be it.”
Hegseth further stated that all troops, including all the people in that room, would be required to do real PT, because he was tired of seeing fat officers and troops in the ranks.
Now, this all could have been accomplished in a video conference or via a memo, but Hegseth wanted his moment, and he got it.
While the people in that room have not been talking very much, we have gotten reactions from some folks in the military community.
I loved what Garrett Smith, an active-duty Marine Corps reservist and CEO of defense tech firm Reveal, had to say. He explained, "At a first level, at any big multinational corporation or big organization, when there’s a new boss, it’s totally reasonable to call in all your regional managers and VPs for a setting of tone, to reconfirm the agenda, to ensure alignment. So, all of that makes sense.”
He continued, "But, obviously, these are not normal times. This is the Trump administration. So, it’s going to come with a bunch of enhanced drama and mystique and weirdness about it. … The policy and the action might have been totally great, but much of the country is going to be left wondering, ‘What was that really about?’"
As I stated when I initially reported on the meeting, I found nothing wrong at all with what Hegseth said, and I have been among those who have pushed back on him being chosen to serve as secretary of War from the outset. I don’t support a lot of what Hegseth has done, nor do I think he is qualified for this position, but I fully support this particular stance and think he knocked it out of the park on this one.
As soon as the meeting was over, the expected bad orange man syndrome kicked in from the left, as though what Hegseth and Trump said at the meeting was horrific and completely out of line.
For instance, MSNBC’s Michael Steele wrote, “The speech was so ludicrous that Sen. Tammy Duckworth -- a former Black Hawk helicopter pilot who lost her legs in service to her country -- called on Hegseth to ‘resign in disgrace immediately.’ Defense officials speaking anonymously to Politico criticized the speech as a waste of time and money and a massive distraction from their vital jobs defending the country.”
The article goes on, painting the new direction of Hegseth’s as racist, but I don’t see it that way. The order given is to create a straightforward standard that must be met by everyone.
Forgive me for being ignorant of the Democrats' cause here, but our men and women who face shots fired in anger deserve to have the best of the best next to them, in front of them, and behind them, not someone who is there simply because the military needed to check a box to meet a quota. One standard, everyone meets it, period. I don’t see how that is in any way racist or sexist.
