VDH UltraControversial Cabinet and Agency Picks—Part Six
Victor Davis Hanson
Pete Hegseth/Secretary of Defense
2. Hegseth would likely take a hard look at the 1-4 star general/admiral class and conclude: a) there are in general too many generals and admirals; b) there are far too many incompetent and politicized generals and admirals who have a demonstrable record of failure, especially during the Afghan skedaddle, the humiliating Chinese balloon flight across the U.S., and the inability to restore deterrence when American bases and installations have been attacked in the Red Sea, Iraq, and Syria; c) he would reexamine the role of retired so-called flag officers (1-4 stars) who revolve out of the Pentagon to defense contractor boardships and as lobbyists, and thus are hired to use their influence over former subordinates within military procurement offices; d) Hegseth would also probably hold to account retired officers who now customarily violate with impunity article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, barring public disparagement if not the slander of their Commander-in-Chief (e.g., their past smears of liar, Mussolini, Hitler-like, etc.); he would also yank military security clearances from retired officers (such as a James Clapper or Leon Panetta of “51 intelligence authorities” fame) who have lied to the public while using their clearances to enhance their marketability.
3. Hegseth would likely reassess the methods and results of current munitions and weapons procurement policies and conclude that we are spending far too much money on far too few platforms that are increasingly far too vulnerable in a new world of hypersonic missiles, drones, and AI warfare.
Hegseth would diversify our defense suppliers, favor quantity over esoteric quality, increase competitive bidding, emphasize far more use of drones in the air, sea, and land, and update and vastly expand a missile defense system for the American homeland.
4. As a Jacksonian, Hegseth would be far more likely to respond to attacks on U.S. installations and personnel abroad—and far less likely to recommend the insertion of American ground troops in landscapes where historically they are at a disadvantage, the Middle East especially.
Cons
Given the credentials outlined above, why is there intense opposition, aside from pure partisanship?
The pushback involves several areas.
One is Hegseth’s personal life. Here there are subgroups of complaints from the Left (of all people!). Hegseth has been married three times, divorced twice.
Some on the Left suggest this is disqualifying. Multi-marriages may not be a recommendation for sainthood, but the public does not know all the circumstances of such divorces or marriages. And would shareholders (whose money is where their mouths are) disqualify Elon Musk from running SpaceX due to his checkered past with a variety of wives and paramours?
Will the same complaint be leveled at the thrice-married RFK, Jr?
Was twice married and widowed once Joe Biden a better president than the thrice-married Trump?
There may be some correlation between sobriety, judiciousness, and steadiness and one’s number of marriages, but most know a lot of unstable single-marriage nincompoops and lots of multi-married geniuses.
Let me end this sub-conversation not by recommending multi-marriages but by noting that the two greatest American battlefield/combat generals since the Civil War were thrice-married Matthew Ridgway and inveterate womanizer George S. Patton. I think it is demonstrable that their unfortunate pasts with marriage and women did not affect their fortunate generalship for the American people.
(To be continued…)
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