Regional Industry & News

Pete Hegseth would have loved commanding a military force during the Crusades, leading an all-white, all-male army imbued with Christian fervor as it set off on horseback for a multi-year campaign to recover the Holy Land from the Muslims.

Unfortunately, eight centuries later, he has been mistakenly placed in command of what is supposed to be a modern, multicultural fighting machine, defending a modern, diverse nation.

But that hasn’t stopped the onetime National Guard major and Fox News anchor from seeking to instill values more reflecting the Middle Ages than today: manliness, obedience and Christian righteousness.

At the same time, he has mismanaged the Pentagon to an extent he should have been replaced a long time ago, squandering weapons stockpiles and forcing constant personnel turnovers. With President Donald Trump’s acquiescence, he has quashed independent voices within the department, firing journalists and in-house military lawyers.

The resulting chaos has prompted even normally docile congressional Republicans to speak out. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said he was “tired of all the churn,” adding, “I want to see some stability over there.”

Seemingly, Hegseth has failed to understand that waging successful 21st-century warfare is far more complex than unleashing a bunch of he-men and that victory is measured by more than the firepower of bombs dropped on the enemy.

Meanwhile, he often acts as if his primary goal is ensuring total loyalty by the military to him, rather than to the country and its flag.

He purged the military’s top minority and female officers, decried gays and ousted honorably serving transgender troops; blocked the promotions of decorated non-white officers; and fired commanders and civilian deputies with links to past policies he disdains.

He told Pentagon officers last year the administration’s goal is “to remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department.”

But he left troops short of the weaponry the nation might need to defend itself, having squandered millions of drones and missiles in the so far futile effort to bomb the Iranians into submission.

The independent Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Pentagon has used half of its Precision Strike Missiles and potentially up to 80% of its THAAD interceptors.

Meanwhile, he sought to silence civilian and military journalists, ordering reporters to pledge to clear all potential news with officials. When most refused, he expelled many from the Pentagon and restricted the movements of those who remained.

Unsurprisingly, journalists still reported his every questionable move, including concerns from the military’s highest-ranking officers about the strain on which he put the military by his questionable allocation of limited resources.

The Washington Post recently reported that the Joint Chiefs of Staff formally warned Hegseth that “prolonging large-scale operations against Iran is unsustainable and risks weakening their ability to confront threats elsewhere, including the U.S. homeland.”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell accused the Post of committing a crime by publishing classified information.

Earlier, Hegseth threatened to demote Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy captain and former astronaut, for joining five other lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds on a video saying military officers did not have to comply with illegal orders. The administration subsequently sought to indict them, but a Washington grand jury refused.

One leak Hegseth was presumably not unhappy about – though officials denied it – was that he sees himself as a 2028 Republican presidential contender, despite indications Trump has already tapped Vice President JD Vance as his favored successor.

Like several Cabinet members, Hegseth barely squeaked through the Republican-controlled Senate by one vote after White House pressure persuaded Iowa Republican Joni Ernst, a retired National Guard lieutenant colonel, to drop concerns about his attitudes toward women in combat and sexual assaults.

Another Republican, retiring North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, expressed regret he voted to confirm Hegseth and called on Trump to fire him after he forced the ouster of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll.

“He’s just had so many misstarts,” Tillis said on the On NOTUS podcast.