What is the purpose of a nation’s army? Common sense would say that it is to defend the nation’s territory and protect its citizens from foreign powers that could destroy their homes, businesses, and peace.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, in line with President Trump’s plan to create a MAGA-Military, aims to make America great again by maintaining the most lethal army in the world. It already is, with 750 overseas military bases in over 80 countries, and although Russia has slightly more nuclear missiles, the U.S. has over five times as many as China.
The Military Must Adopt a War Culture to Protect Our Peace
Hegseth’s first words to the over 700 generals and admirals, sitting quietly before him at last month’s emergency gathering, were “Welcome to the War Department because the era of the Department of Defense is over. Your only mission is ‘warfighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising.” Hegseth cast a glowing view of the past to the generals, most of whom had more military experience than he did. He claimed our period of peace, ignoring the Vietnam and Iraq wars, was brought about by the warrior ethos that has been lost.
Hegseth relentlessly called for preparedness to defend our peace, saying, “We must prepare now… Enemies gather. Threats grow.” However, he avoided explaining who these foreign enemies are and how the military elite should prepare for their threats. Instead, he weakly stated that deterring China is another discussion for another day. Additionally, he did not mention Russia’s violent invasion of Ukraine. It’s unbelievable that in Hegseth’s 45-minute speech, there was no mention of a plan or analysis regarding these two major military issues. Despite our military spending billions on both fronts.
This fiscal year, $10 billion will be spent on enhancing deterrence capabilities in the Indo-Pacific region, specifically focusing on countering China. This does not include a significant portion of our (NIP) National Intelligence Program’s $73.4 billion allocated for surveillance and intelligence gathering related to China. In fact, there was no mention of or participation from NIP staff during the entire event. We have also spent $69.7 billion in military aid to Ukraine to oppose Russia since its initial 2014 invasion of that country. Hegseth did not mention any options for ending this war or how it could lead to a nuclear confrontation with Russia.
Who are we talking about as the enemy if there is no mention of China or Russia? Trump more directly addressed that question when he followed Hegseth, saying that inner cities within America are not a big part of war. He had already called out 700 Marines to Los Angeles in June and threatened other cities controlled by his enemies, the Democrats, which we could see in the future.
New Physical MAGA Standards will be Adopted
Hegseth avoided discussing deploying the army in our cities. Instead, he spent most of his speech calling for a new standard for all military members to adhere to. When he mentioned being tired of seeing overweight troops at combat formations and fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, one could agree that it “looked bad,” as he said.
Hegseth went on and dedicated significant time to emphasizing that his new War Department would be reinstating the 1990 military standards for physical fitness tests. They would be eliminating the changes made in 2015 that he claimed had allowed females to qualify and had been manipulated to meet racial quotas as well.
Was he suggesting that not only were women probably unable to perform well in combat physically, but that Blacks and other minorities were as well? Was he especially concerned about the fitness of the 31.2% of active-duty members who identify as racial minorities?
He identified the steps that military leaders would take to establish a uniform gender- neutral high standard of conduct that rejects the previous “sloppy and woke conditions.” From now on they would promote people not based on immutable characteristics or quotas, but on the merit of achieving a high level of physical fitness to fight in combat. Consequently, every member at every rank, from a brand new private to a four-star general, is required to take a physical training test twice a year.
Creating new standards for physical fitness, is not a dire political issue. However, Hegseth’s his new standards have a deeper message: it’s about clearing the deck of all those who would question his new warfighting culture policy.
The New Standard will fire toxic leaders and replace them with loyal MAGA followers.
Hegseth has boasted that “Personnel is policy” is the linchpin for achieving greatness, saying, “No plan, no program, no reform, no formation will ultimately succeed unless we have the right people and the right culture at the War Department.” Who are the right People?
The right people are not simply those military officers who are job “qualified, professional, apolitical, and faithful to the Constitution,” because that is not enough to make someone a good leader. They need to promote a warfighting culture, otherwise they are “toxic leaders.” He points to officers who are not pursuing “the goals of high, gender-neutral and uncompromising standards in order to forge a cohesive, formidable and lethal Department of War.” Which he defends “as our duty consistent with our constitutional oath.”
Is it a constitutional duty to be gender-neutral in training our military members? Where does he cross the line from him being a MAGA follower, to demanding that all service members also be?
Hegseth goes into an ideological territory when he accuses military officers who do not adopt MAGA beliefs, that they are providing toxic leadership that promotes “destructive ideologies that are an anathema to the Constitution and the laws of nature and nature's God.” Think about that statement. He is redefining loyalty to the Constitution, which all service members swear to. Is that loyalty now to a MAGA-defined version of the Constitution, based on God?
The Military’s New Motto: The End Justifies the Means
Hegseth declared that his meeting marked a liberation day, “the liberation of America's warriors, in name, in deed, and in authority. You kill people and break things for a living. You are not politically correct.”
He described toxic leaders are those that unfairly restrain members from committing abuse or war crimes. He recommends that they should leave the service or change their practices. True leaders should not be risk averse and execute practices that win, not lose. Simply put they must practice that the ends justify the means philosophy. In sum, Toxic leaders are “incapable of embracing the War Department and executing new lawful orders.”
This attitude begins with basic training, which Hegseth said was being restored to what it should be, scary, tough and disciplined, empowering drill sergeants to instill healthy fear in new recruits, by any means short of violating the law. The theme is “We're training warriors, not defenders. We fight wars to win, not to defend. Lethality is our calling card and victory our only acceptable end state.”
In effect, Hegseth said to forget about strict oversight of how officers treat those below them or enemy captives. He proposes that misconduct records, such as abusing other service members, not be kept forever if the infractions are minor or forgivable. Presumably, Hegseth could make the final call as the head of the Department of War.
In addition, Hegseth is overhauling the inspector general process to not accept frivolous complaints, such as those that emanate from equal opportunity and military equal opportunity policies being violated. It is expected that dismissing frivolous or forgivable violent acts would apply to foreign operations. A perfect example is how Hegseth, as Fox News commentator repeatedly defended charges of war crimes against service members.
In one instance he appealed directly to Mr. Trump to help a First Lt. and a Chief Petty Officer accused of murdering captives. Trump was influenced by Hegseth describing them as heroes and victims, being wrongly prosecuted by bureaucrats. Despite multiple platoon members, serving under both accused officers, describing the killings by their leaders as coldblooded murder, Trump pardoned the Lieutenant and reversed a demotion for the Chief.
What happens if Hegseth’s new military standards remain?
There could be more lawsuits challenging the government for permitting domestic abuse and blatant discrimination. In foreign wars, war crimes committed may be excused as the cost of success. However, someone would have to bring the charges. Hegseth made clear both in his speech and past actions that he would retaliate against any military members who make those accusations. So, the military may become a closed society, separate from the legal protections usually granted even to those in the military.
Fran and David Korten raised a hopeful possibility in writing Pete Hegseth Just Did Us All a Big Favor. They saw this meeting as an opportunity for the leaders present to hear directly Hegseth and Trump describe policies that they would find unacceptable. They could confer with each other and realize each was not alone. That is a comfortable scenario to believe.
But the issue is that the gathered generals lack the capacity to do much. The military is a top-down institution by design and tradition. If Hegseth creates the warfighting culture he describes, it will have a corrupting effect that may gradually weaken the military’s constitutional and traditional mission.
A stubborn president might not accept court decisions that prevent him from using our military to fire on citizens. In such a case, he could call on the military, which would be told it is their duty to follow their leaders' orders and ignore court rulings because they are acting in accordance with the Constitution and God's law.
There is an urgent need for former military leaders to speak up and challenge the ideological MAGA approach that Hegseth has embraced for shaping our military. Where are they? Who is reaching out to them and asking them to uncover what is happening?
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Nick Licata is the author of Becoming A Citizen Activist and Student Power, Democracy and Revolution in the Sixties. He is the founding board chair of Local Progress, a national network of over 1,300 progressive municipal officials.