In case you missed the absurd and alarming meeting that Whiskey Pete Hegseth and Dementia Don Trump had with USA generals in Quantico earlier this week, here are some gift linked articles to get you up to speed on the military madness:
The president tries to enlist the top brass for “the war from within” (The Economist)
“AMERICA’S GENERALS and admirals scrambled home from the four corners of the world, summoned at short notice to hear an urgent message from their leaders on September 30th that was both ludicrous and ominous. Absurdly, President Donald Trump complained about “ugly” modern warships designed for stealth, and called for the return of old-school battleships with big guns rather than missiles. Alarmingly, he said military forces should be deployed at home to help wage “the war from within” against migrants and leftists. He confirmed that the National Guard would soon be sent to Chicago, and he added a chilling note: “We should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds” for military forces.”
The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay (The Atlantic)
“The president talked at length, and his comments should have confirmed to even the most sympathetic observer that he is, as the kids say, not okay. Several of Hegseth’s people said in advance of the senior-officer conclave that its goal was to energize America’s top military leaders and get them to focus on Hegseth’s vision for a new Department of War. But the generals and admirals should be forgiven if they walked out of the auditorium and wondered: What on earth is wrong with the commander in chief?” […]
“In 1973, an Air Force nuclear-missile officer named Harold Hering asked a simple question during a training session: “How can I know that an order I receive to launch my missiles came from a sane president?” The question cost him his career. Military members are trained to execute orders, not question them. But today, both the man who can order the use of nuclear arms and the man who would likely verify such an order gave disgraceful and unnerving performances in Quantico. How many officers left the room asking themselves Major Hering’s question?”
Hundreds of Generals Try to Keep a Straight Face (The Atlantic)
“Hegseth, who is the subject of a soon-to-be-released investigation by the Pentagon’s inspector general over his sharing of attack plans on a Signal chat that inadvertently included The Atlantic’s editor in chief, Jeffrey Goldberg, said that he would reform the IG process because, as he saw it, official investigations had “been weaponized, putting complainers, ideologues, and poor performers in the driver’s seat.” He also announced measures to alter promotion and disciplinary processes, providing greater leeway for troops accused of wrongdoing. Immediately afterward, the Defense Department issued seven memos codifying Hegseth’s remarks, including a 60-day review of training standards and a 30-day review of how the department defines bullying and hazing, which Hegseth believes has wrongly resulted in disciplinary action for troops being tough on subordinates or being politically incorrect.”
Pete Hegseth Is Living the Dream (The Atlantic)
“There is a certain kind of Army officer who, after the excitement of company command, finds his career stalled, and who perhaps leaves the service as a major in the National Guard filled with bitterness and resentment. He may then dream of one day being in a position to make all the superior officers who failed to appreciate his leadership qualities, his insight, his sheer fitness stand to attention and hear him lay down the law about what it is to be an officer, and threaten to fire those who do not meet his standards. In this respect, and this respect only, on that stage Pete Hegseth was living the dream.
“In all other respects, however, he was ridiculous. While much of what he said was unobjectionable (working out and getting haircuts are good things, after all), it was the kind of thing that a battalion commander might say to some scruffy lieutenants and sergeants. Indeed, Hegseth could not help himself, using we when he mentioned those in the service. The whole point of having a secretary of defense is that he or she is a civilian, first and foremost, and not a soldier. Hegseth’s examples, moreover, were drawn primarily from the only military things he knows firsthand—that is, the kind of tactics, training, and maintenance that a captain in charge of 150 soldiers has to worry about.”
‘Dangerous Cities,’ the Military, Trump and the Founding Fathers (The New York Times)
‘In the middle of Tuesday’s rambling speech at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, President Trump told hundreds of the country’s military commanders his latest thinking on where they should next set their sights.
Not Poland, or Romania, or Estonia or Denmark, all NATO allies where Russian drones have in the past month violated airspace in a challenge to the alliance’s borders.
The president chose San Francisco. Chicago. New York. Los Angeles.
“We’re going to straighten that out one by one, and this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room,” Mr. Trump told the generals, admirals and enlisted leaders, referring to what he has described as crime-filled urban hellscapes.
“It’s a war from within,” he said.’