The ex-Fox News host railed against decades of work to diversify the all-volunteer military as he announced initiatives to effectively exclude women from combat roles and relax protections against hazing and bullying of troops
More than 800 of America’s top military leaders sat silent and showed no reaction as ex-Fox News presenter turned Pentagon boss Pete Hegseth told them he was issuing a series of new directives that will make it harder for women to serve in combat and easier for personnel to engage in hazing and bullying without repercussions during an unprecedented gathering of flag-rank officers at a Marine Corps base in Virginia on Tuesday.
The Secretary of War — a title not used by the head of the U.S. military establishment since 1947 but revived by President Donald Trump earlier this month — told the group of admirals, generals, and their senior enlisted advisers he was “ending the war on warriors” and complained that too many of their peers had been put in their roles “for the wrong reasons” including their race and gender.
Standing in front of a large American flag backdrop, he attacked by name several of the leaders’ retired peers, telling them that the department’s “compass heading” was “clear.”
“Out with the Chiarelli, the McKenzies and the Milleys and in with the Stockdales the Schwartzkopfs and the Pattons,” he said, denigrating former Army Vice Chief of Staff General Peter Chiarelli, ex-U.S. Central Command commander and Marine Corps General Kenneth McKenzie Jr, and ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman and Army General Mark Milley, each of whom has been critical of Trump or his administration.
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies,” he added.
Hegseth also groused about efforts to open up combat roles to women and initiatives to “weed out so-called toxic leaders” and blamed “foolish and reckless” politicians for having “set the wrong compass” and causing the Pentagon to lose its way.
Hegseth, an Iraq War veteran who attained the rank of Major in the Army National Guard but became a critic of the Pentagon’s efforts to open up military service to women, racial minorities and LGBT+ persons, said the War Department must “restore a ruthless, dispassionate and common sense application of standards” that are “uniform, gender neutral and high.”
He told the assembled leaders he was issuing a directive to ensure that “every designated Combat Arms” role across all branches “returns to the highest male standard only,” all but reversing a 2015 directive from then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter to open all combat roles to women.
“If you do not meet the male level physical standards for combat positions … it’s time for a new position or a new profession,” he said. “If women can make it excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.”
The War Secretary also claimed — without offering evidence — that the Pentagon had lowered standards “to hit racial quotas as well” and said the revised standards he was promulgating are based on what he called the “1990 test,” which compares today’s standards to those in 1990, a time when women were barred from combat roles and LGBT+ persons were banned from serving.
“The 1990s test is simple. What were the military standards in 1990 and if they have changed, tell me why was it a necessary change based on the evolving landscape of combat, or was the change due to a softening, weakening or gender based pursuit of other priorities? 1990s seems to be as good a place to start as any,” he said.
In a better timeline the top brass rushed the stage & pulled Kegseth apart like a chicken.
Is that something you typically do to chickens where you’re from?
Only when we can’t afford a piñata
I really, really hope that Hegseth takes his “war on beards” bullshit and tries to force the “Tier 1” / Special Mission Unit people to shave their beards and meet his grooming standards.
We have a literal child running our military, we might honestly want to get ready for any shit China or Russia or Iran might try to pull while we have our pants down.
To be fair they’re silent because, the room was called to attention. When you’re at attention, you don’t clap, you stand still at attention.
So the whole “recalling all the generals home for a big meeting” was just “this could have been an email” media bluster.
Fr fr, gather everyone just to say “shave yur head” lol, what a clowns
He feared for it to get caught in a spam filter.
I was worried it would be a purge or briefing for invading Greenland or some shit
“the sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies”
It’s pronounced reich, dipshit.
I wonder how generals feel about being told how to do their jobs by a major.
And someone who was a major failure at being a military officer.
…a major dildo.
I’m sure they are hyped, delighted, and filled with espirit de corps about all of this.
Espirit de coup d’état?
Won’t happen. As much as it should, it won’t happen. Unfortunately a lot of our military are cheering this on, even if their leadership is luke-warm about it.
“Hey you fat fucks, none of this girl shit. We’re going to all do push-ups and jack off to the good kind of porn and get cool Hearts of Iron 4 tattoos and pray to the Real Jesus and any of you phony losers who complains can hit the fucking bricks! Now lets go fight some wars because we love peace!”
Punches the air
Chops crotch repeatedly
Tries to do a stage dive, hesitates, and walks it back pretending to look cool about it
Yeah, I can’t imagine why this fell flat.
I ain’t gonna read it but did he really? I was wondering when the broke it up did anyone applaud?
It might work… if you were 12.
I didn’t do any of that shit when I was 12…
Starting to think the military may be the last hope of true allegiance to the flag.
Trump needs a war to declare martial law and then undermine elections. He can then claim he’s only doing what Zelenskyy has done.
Think we also saw this tried in South Korea didn’t we?
He can claim anything, but Ukraine’s constitution doesn’t allow elections during war. America’s does.
In the backdrop of this, does that even remotely matter?
It only matters insofar as the courts uphold that; and even if they do, Courts have no enforcement arm to ensure adherence.
This will ultimately rest on how much individual states or these military generals want to unilaterally push back.
Ukraine’s constitution doesn’t allow elections during war
Seems like a big flaw in the Constitution, given that the public now has no way to remove leadership that’s running a war this badly.
Badly? Even Trump, Putin’s good buddy, has said that he believes Ukraine can not just win, but take back all the territory that Russia took. So, how is that running a war “badly”?
given that the public now has no way to remove leadership that’s running a war this badly.
What? David is holding his own against Goliath, but that’s “running a war this badly”?
David is holding his own against Goliath
If that’s the case, Zelensky will win in a landslide and be pronounced Kind of Judea.
He said the other day he doesn’t want to seek another term after the war is over.
Can’t blame him, I’d want out of it too if I were in his position.
Netanyahu has made similar remarks.
But when the war never ends and there’s no election to campaign for, its an easy pledge to hold on to.
When your country is being invaded by a colonizer, elections would be, at best near impossible to run free and fairly, at worst a guarantee for interference
Trump: “The immigrants are invading America, we can’t hold an election now”
elections would be, at best near impossible to run free and fairly
Americans ran elections during the US Civil War in 1864. West Germany held elections in the middle of the Berlin Blockade in 1949. Give me a fucking break.
Seems useful at the moment, given Russia’s penchant for election interference.
Moldova just elected an EU-friendly government in a landslide, despite perpetual claims of election interference.
Poland and Romania also just put up a staunch anti-Russian nationalists.
The notion that Russia can rig elections in their favor hasn’t born out over the last two years. Anti-Russia candidates are sweeping Eastern Europe.
Is Moldova at war?
And how did Moldova achieve it? By booting out the obvious traitors.
A model for America.
Is Moldova at war?
Does it matter?
And how did Moldova achieve it?
They were the incumbent party and they grew their majority by pinning economic decline on the Russian invasion of their neighbor.
By booting out the obvious traitors.
The BEP wasn’t booted out. They have the second highest majority of MPs in Parliament.
A model for America.
:-/ Do you know anything about Moldovan politics?
The notion that Russia can rig elections in their favor hasn’t born out over the last two years.
Doesn’t mean they haven’t been trying
Which country should be holding elections, on these terms? It seems like everyone gets to claim a rival state is meddling in their politics.
And the current leadership is incentivized to keep the war going, so they can stay in power.
S Korea didn’t have a legislature of men with their mouths suction cupped to the ass of that leader. They knew their duty, and climbed past military through windows and such to make it happen.
Look at reporting for any coup that has ever happened.
Take note of how those reports talk about which side has support of the military.
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies,”
Trump can say and do whatever he wants … it really doesn’t matter
The thing of it is … what will the country and the rest of the US government ALLOW HIM to get away with.
Trump has no power … only the power that he is allowed to have … and so far, the US government, both political parties and the citizens have been more than willing to allow him to get away with whatever he wants.
I don’t blame some dumb orange politician … I blame the entire country for their shared collective stupidity.
It’s 2025 and people are hoping for a military coup against an elected President.
…as a response to the President advocating for invading US cities to ‘train for war’ and all the other shit that violates the thing they are sworn to protect, the Constitution.
Also, the more time goes on without any mention of the integrity of the last election while openly advocating for more and more election manipulation and voter disenfranchisement, the more I am convinced that the Republicans directly rigged the 2024 election instead of their regular tactics. It would be yet another thing that Republicans claimed Dems were doing because Republicans were planning or doing it already.
I did not say that. I simply said they may be our last hope of true allegiance to the flag. Military pledges loyalty to the Constitution; not the President.
Not trying to put words in your mouth.
On the other hand, would you be surprised if someone actually said it?
I think it was shock given what he said about chairman dan caine. I mean I never.
I’m sure more bigotry, bullying and hazing will be super helpful with that perpetual recruiting crisis.
Since they’re in the process of crashing the economy, they’re counting on young poor people not having much choice.
Still, morale is gonna suck
And frag grenades are known to be very unfriendly to officers in times of poor morale. Shame, really.
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies”…… holy shit.
The right policies in the cities they plan on using to practice for war.
It just gets worse and worse the more you read about this shitshow.
Every good rally ends in total silence.
The comedic timing of having this song queued up and ready to triumphantly play him off stage was impeccable.
Above FAFO and “do the honorable thing and resign,” I hope everyone in that audience remembers
- Never comply in advance
- Fuck you, make me
The German armed forces during the interwar period between WWI and WWII were pretty apolitical … they didn’t really care who was in power.
But it was filled with a bunch of professional idiots that only ever understood the world through the lens of war … they wanted to be in war, fighting, sending people to die, doing heroic things, killing people, blowing things up … they had a bloodlust for wanting to into battle and become the next historic Caesar or Alexander … they wanted to be remembered as a great warrior hero that did amazing things and lived to tell everyone about it all. They wanted to become that great general, some great army leader, someone who led a great battle and led his troops to some massive epic fight.
So when WWII started and they had a leader who was willing to send them to war … any war … for any reason … many of them didn’t care, all they cared about was that they were going to war to play war games.
A great example was General Irwin Rommel ‘The Desert Fox’ … he fought in WWI and he was highly disappointed in what happened because he didn’t do much. Then he hung on to the armed forces as long as he could after the war but had to give up and become a civilian again … and it drove him nuts. And when Germany started rearming, he was at the front of the line to reenlist and rejoin and didn’t care about the politics … he swung and joined whatever movement Nazi or otherwise in order to just get the war started. He got his big break, became a well known war celebrity and he didn’t care if he were Nazi, not Nazi, or supported Hitler or those that worked against the Nazis … all Rommel cared about was that he got to ride a tank, lead troops, blow things up, kill enemies and become famous.
German army leaders didn’t really start rebelling against their leadership until later in the war when they realized that they weren’t going to win.
Understand that a lot of that is revisionist history along the same lines as “They were evil but they had amazing technology”. It is very much meant to excuse the soldiers and officers and insist everything was just “a few bad apples”.
But yes. There are definitely war mongers who just want to have some fun and don’t care who they are murdering or ethnically cleansing.
That’s what’s terrifying about these generals and military leaders in the US at this rally … you don’t know where their politics lie because they just don’t care. They’ll follow whatever leader as long as they get to keep their job. They could have the next Hitler in power and as long as the general keeps his job, his power and his troops under him, then he really doesn’t care what his government does.
I mean… it doesn’t matter “where their politics lie” if they are the military arm of a fascist and genocidal government. I don’t really give a shit if Lieutenant Smith is torn up inside when he goes home after ordering people into the gas chamber.
It is mostly just the call of duty generation who can’t accept that and insist that actually the military are our friends and it was so great that they didn’t shoot people during the BLM protests a few years back… even though they were very clearly standing there to make sure that said protesters “didn’t go too far” and would have stepped in the moment the oppressors were threatened.
Never comply in advance
That only matters if they actually resist.
Sitting around, doing paperwork, ordering troop movements, etc? That isn’t resisting no matter how many typos you put in the paperwork saying that this person is to be deported to a black site.
Nah. All these fuckers are going to tut tut on the off chance a Democrat ever takes office again but will follow orders and insist “I serve the flag, not the man” while following all of the rapist’s orders.
I mean, I don’t think there’s any chance things aren’t going to get worse from here. But I can say with certainty, that “rally” definitely did not go the way they hoped it would.
I would prefer people who aren’t tripping over themselves at every opportunity to kiss the ring stay, rather than resign and being replaced with loyalists who view this as an opportunity to finally play real life Nazi and live out their wet dreams.
Again: I don’t really give a shit if they kiss the ring or not. If they are going to follow every order they are given and enforce the will of the fascists then they are just as bad as the guy doing the exact same things but ALSO masturbating over a corpse.
Shit or get off the pot. Silent resistance requires actually resisting.
I don’t understand why they say the minorities they fired were not capable or meritorious. I also don’t understand why forced de-bearding isn’t a direct violation of religious freedom for those who adhere to certain religions, since the same concept is used to fuck over women because birth control is icky. Forced shaving for photo ops style troops seems stupid anyway. Why introduce the risk of ingrown hairs, inflammation, and infection?
I don’t understand why they say the minorities they fired were not capable or meritorious.
Because they’re racists and they can get away with saying that.
I also don’t understand why forced de-bearding isn’t a direct violation of religious freedom
Because they control all 3 branches of government, and the Supreme Court is pretty strongly MAGA. So, the prosecutors are owned by Trump and wouldn’t touch a case like that, and a civil lawsuit would just eventually lose.
Because it disproportionately affects people with higher melanin content. And this whole shit brigade is racist trash.
Because in addition to being racist, sexist bigots, they’re very very stupid.
I don’t understand why they say the minorities they fired were not capable or meritorious.
They’re white nationalists. What more do you need to know?
White Christian nationalists, which is why they are denying religious exemptions since stereotypical Christian stuff is just the ‘normal’ way of doing things and doesn’t need an exemption.
Few layers to that.
I don’t understand why they say the minorities they fired were not capable or meritorious.
Because this is a meritocracy and the reason you didn’t get promoted isn’t because you are grossly incompetent but because Pedro is brown. And, because you weren’t fired, you are even better.
Why introduce the risk of ingrown hairs, inflammation, and infection?
There are actually very good reasons to mandate a force that is meant to be In The Field for extended periods of time shave. Setting up gas masks/PPE to work over facial hair is very possible but it slows down the process of masking up and introduces parts that need to be replaced more regularly. Similarly, lice and other “fun stuff” are very much a thing which is also why you don’t rock a Fabio when you are spending weeks in the wilderness or in places where water needs to be conserved.
That said, shaving does drastically increase the risk of ingrown hairs/inflammation and (I have been told) African genetics are particularly predisposed to that. Which… is why you don’t shave. You use creams like nair instead. That doesn’t solve all problems but it goes a long way…
Which would make sense if the goal were actually to be a healthier more efficient force and not just to uphold whatever weird white male wank fantasy the chuds get off on.
Hegseth is such an insecure piece of shit just like his boss. What a fucking colossal waste of time and money for what was essentially a YouTube rant with homoerotic undertones about “male-level performance”.
I’d be laughing more if Trump and Hegseth weren’t actively looking to do their own version of Tiananmen Square.
Give him some credit. He’s probably only insecure during those rare times he’s forced to be sober.
That was how it was when the Trump appointed Secretary made a department-wide speech where I work. The half of the crowd that sat through the whole thing went mild. Or, at least, that’s what I heard. I was in the other half.
I seem to remember the secdef from Trump 1 relieving the captain of an aircraft carrier of his command because he made public that there was a COVID outbreak on board and no accommodations were being made. It culminated with Secdef Shitheel getting on the intercom of this carrier and belittling the former captain in front of the entire crew. There’s videos some of the crew took.
I don’t even remember this guy’s name, but I do remember that, like Hegseth, he had little military experience to speak of. Most of his career was corporate management or something.
That’s what this admin loves. Worthless corpos and shitheel influencers belittling and browbeating the people who actually hold things together.
The captain was Captain Brett Crozier of the USS Theodore Roosevelt. He was fired by the acting Secretary of the Navy, Thomas
MoldyModly. The fallout was so bad that his candy ass got relieved a few days later, but not before the ship had an infection rate of around 14% and at least a few deaths.I wish someone would stick all these people on a big ship, disable all communications equipment on board, tug it to Point Nemo, and just let it drift around there.
Launch the Brown October
“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies,” he added.
WINK WINK
