October 10, 2025
On the last day of September, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth summoned about 800 generals, admirals, commanders, officers, and senior enlisted leaders of the U.S. military from around the world to a meeting at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
"Good morning and welcome to the War Department because the era of the Department of Defense is over," began Hegseth.
I've got news for Secretary Hegseth, there never was an era of the Department of Defense. The DOD was formed by the National Security Act of 1947, which set up a single Secretary of Defense over the Army, the Navy, and the newly established Air Force. (The Marine Corps is part of the Navy but has its own commandant.) The last time the United States actually declared war on a country for "defensive" purposes was during World War II when it declared war on Japan after Pearl Harbor and then declared war on the other axis powers of Germany, Italy, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria. The Department of Defense has always been a Department of Offense and Intervention: Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Dominican Republic, Lebanon, Grenada, Honduras, Libya, Persian Gulf, Panama, Colombia, Philippines, Bosnia, Somalia, Macedonia, Haiti, Kuwait, East Timor, Serbia, Yemen, Syria, and, most recently, Iran.
Not one of these military actions was in defense of the United States. They were all done to carry out a reckless, belligerent, and meddling foreign policy.
To his credit, Hegseth said some good things in his speech:
This administration has done a great deal from day one to remove the social justice,
politically correct, and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics. No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division, distraction or gender delusions. No more debris.
For too long, we've promoted too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts.
I don't want my son serving alongside troops who are out of shape or in combat unit with females who can't meet the same combat arms physical standards as men, or troops who are not fully proficient on their assigned weapons platform or task or under a leader who was the first but not the best. Standards must be uniform, gender neutral and high. If not, they're not standards. They're just suggestions, suggestions that get our sons and daughters killed.
When it comes to combat arms units, and there are many different stripes across our joint force, the era of politically correct, overly sensitive, don't hurt anyone's feelings leadership ends right now. At every level, either you can meet the standard, either you can do the job, either you are disciplined, fit and trained, or you are out.
Frankly, it's tiring to look out at combat formations, or really any formation, and see fat troops. Likewise, it's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It's a bad look. It is bad, and it's not who we are.
However, he also said some troubling things in his speech:
You see, this urgent moment of course requires more troops, more munitions, more drones, more Patriots, more submarines, more B-21 bombers.
We also don't fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement, just common sense, maximum lethality and authority for warfighters.
We have to be prepared for war, not for defense. We're training warriors, not defenders. We fight wars to win, not to defend.
Hegseth, who has been held up as a great example of a Christian leader, said his message to U.S. "enemies" was "FAFO," a slang term that stands for "F**k around and find out." His speech contained a few other words of profanity as well. But hey, Trump takes the Lord's name in vain and most MAGA Christians don't bat an eye.
After Hegseth concluded his speech, President Trump spoke for over an hour. In typical Trump fashion, he said: "We are the United States military. The best, the boldest, the bravest that the world has ever seen. We will fight, fight, fight, and we will win, win, win." Trump wants dangerous U.S. cities to be "training grounds" for the military, and says he is "committed to spending more than $1 trillion on the military in 2026."
In his speech, Hegseth referred to Trump's liberation day tariffs. "Today," he said, "is another liberation day, the liberation of America's warriors, in name, in deed and in authorities."
But if he really wanted to liberate America's warriors, he should have said things like this about the military-
The military will no longer fight wars that are not constitutionally declared.
The military will no longer serve as the president's personal attack force.
The military will no longer police the world.
The military will no longer fight unjust wars.
The military will no longer make widows and orphans.
The military will no longer carry out reckless, belligerent, and meddling foreign policy.
The military will no longer station troops all over the world.
The military will stop helping to create terrorists, insurgents, and militants.
The military will stop going where they have no business going.
The military will no longer invade other countries.
The military will no longer fight unnecessary wars.
The military will no longer pretend to defend our freedoms.
The military will close all of its foreign bases.
The military will no longer engage in offense and call it defense.
The military will finally leave Germany, Italy, and Japan since World War II ended 80 years ago.
The military will no longer bomb countries that are no threat to the United States.
The military will no longer occupy other countries.
The military will no longer support a network of brothels around the world.
The military will no longer kill civilians and call it collateral damage.
The military will no longer fight foreign wars.
The military will no longer maintain golf courses on Okinawa.
The military will no longer fight immoral wars.
The military will no longer defend other countries.
The military will no longer waste U.S. taxpayer dollars.
The military will no longer maim and kill people who are no threat to the United States.
The military will bring all of its soldiers home to American soil.
The military will never let a drop of American blood be shed except in the actual defense of the country.
The military will no longer be a global force for evil.
The military will no longer go abroad seeking monsters to destroy.
These are the things that Pete Hegseth should have said about the military. Anything less is just death and destruction as usual with a little more masculinity and a little less wokeness.