Why Is Pete Hegseth Meeting With Hundreds of Generals?

Brandon J. Weichert

Source Link

Secretary Hegseth’s secretive meeting with all senior officers tomorrow is likely about President Trump’s proposed national security strategy.

There is, right now, a document bouncing around the Pentagon’s elephantine bureaucracy that has yet to be revealed but has already sparked a high degree of fear and loathing among the professional pearl-clutching set in Washington.

Last week, part of the document, which was drafted under the supervision of current Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, was leaked to Politico. Much to the consternation of Washington’s professional class, the document hints at a significant strategy shift in which the United States will effectively deprioritize its European, Middle Eastern, African, and Indo-Pacific areas of responsibility in favor of Western hemispheric defense.

Pete Hegseth’s Strategic Reprioritization

Rumors abound that Secretary of Defense (and now “Secretary of War”) Pete Hegseth’s secretive meeting in Quantico, Virginia tomorrow, in which all of America’s generals and flag officers and key members of their staffs stationed in all corners of the world will convene in a rare meet-up, is about the proposed national security strategy memo. Because this memo is such a sea change from the last 80 years of US grand strategy, it will likely require a high degree of handholding from the secretary.

Beyond the proposed reorganization of US strategic priorities and resources, it is expected that Hegseth will likely use this possible reorganization of the US military’s combatant commands and overall strategy to pressure elements in the highest ranks of the uniformed military to either retire or risk being fired.

The uniformed leaders who, through the Trump administration’s own as-yet-undeclared rubric, are deemed to be impediments to military readiness will soon face immense pressure. Of course, it should come as no surprise that President Donald Trump—who has had a famously stormy relationship with some of his former generals—wants to purge admirals and generals who are deemed to be “woke” and too supportive of priorities other than warfighting, such as fighting anthropogenic climate change.

By creating a national strategy memo that prioritizes a fundamental reorganization of military commands and forces, Western hemispheric defense, and space-based missile defense, Hegseth can also use it as a cover to pressure the commanders he and Trump want removed for political reasons.