Toward the end of his unsettling speech to the nation’s generals and admirals last week, in which he effectively made the case that testosterone is the key to modern warfare, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered an unsubtle message to his audience.
“If the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” the beleaguered Pentagon chief said.
It was a pointed reminder that Hegseth is not exactly open to engaging with military leaders whose views differ from his own. On the contrary, he’s proven himself eager to purge the armed forces of those he deems unworthy — a campaign that’s still ongoing. Politico reported:
Defense Secretary Pete Hesgeth on Friday fired Navy chief of staff Jon Harrison, an unusually powerful top aide who had orchestrated a reshuffle of the service’s bureaucracy. … The Pentagon, in a statement, confirmed Harrison’s departure. ‘He will no longer serve as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Navy,’ it said. ‘We are grateful for his service to the Department.’
Harrison’s ouster roughly coincided with two high-profile military retirements — Gen. Bryan Fenton, the head of U.S. Special Operations Command, and Gen. Thomas Bussiere, a top Air Force commander — though it’s unclear if their departures had anything to do with Hegseth.
There was no ambiguity, however, in late August when the defense secretary fired Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kruse, who served as director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, and Rear Admiral Milton Sands, a Navy SEAL officer who oversaw the Naval Special Warfare Command.
Four days earlier, Gen. David Allvin, the chief of staff of the Air Force, was also shown the door.
The broader purge also includes Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh, who was both the head of U.S. Cyber Command and the director of the National Security Agency; Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., who was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Gen. James Slife, former vice chief of staff of the Air Force; Adm. Linda Fagan, the commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard; Adm. Lisa Franchetti; Lt. Gen. Jennifer Short; Lt. Gen. Joseph B. Berger III, the Army’s top military lawyer; Lt. Gen. Charles Plummer, the Air Force’s top military lawyer; and Navy Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the only woman on NATO’s military committee.
Each of these instances is important in its own right, but let’s not miss the forest for the trees: A scandal-plagued former Fox News host is destabilizing the U.S. military.
Earlier this year, five former defense secretaries — including retired Gen. Jim Mattis, Trump’s first defense secretary — condemned the firings as “reckless.” Their joint letter, addressed to Congress, asked that the House and the Senate hold “immediate hearings to assess the national security implications” of the dismissals.
Hegseth and the administration appear to have ignored the concerns; the purge is ongoing; and GOP leaders on Capitol Hill have scheduled no such hearings. Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts, who served as a Marine officer in Iraq and who now serves on the House Armed Services Committee, spoke to Politico about Hegseth’s purges, which the congressman described as politically motivated. “That’s a recipe not just for a politicized military, but an authoritarian military,” Moulton said. “That’s the way militaries work in Russia and China and North Korea.” The Massachusetts Democrat made those comments in May. The problem is worse now. This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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