He just keeps getting himself into trouble, and no reason is a good one. Like Trump, he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. He’s far too concerned with testosterone and machismo, manly-man crap, than about his job. It shouldn’t be surprising, considering his background, but sometimes it still is. If nothing else, he gives us lots of content to discuss here. That part is fun. But damn, could someone please get him under control, or is that too much to hope for? It’s getting interesting for him, and mistakes are showing, as we knew they eventually would. With respect for Raw Story:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is being pressured to backtrack after an airstrike gone wrong, according to The Atlantic. The Pentagon is moving towards restoring as many as half of the roles that Hegseth cut during a “pugnacious” purge at the Department of Defense, according to reporting by The Atlantic.
Hegseth’s downsizing included the firing or reassignment of staff dedicated to avoiding civilian casualties in war, the reporting noted. “The potential reversal, which hasn’t previously been reported, now awaits Hegseth’s signature,” according to The Atlantic. The Pentagon is considering bringing back staff as it deals with the fallout of an airstrike that killed almost 170 people, most of them children, at a school in southern Iran, The Atlantic reported.
Well, now, this is a bit of news. The Pentagon is considering bringing back people for civilian casualties. Does that mean there is someone who can override Hegseth? Now* that* would be a sight for sore eyes. It’s probably just wishful thinking, because if someone could override him, there are a lot of things that might not have happened, like, say, oh, the Venezuela boat bombings? They were happening even with the Iran war going on, so there’s no reason to assume they’ve stopped. There would be pages and pages if we got into those, so let’s go back to Petey Boy.
The Atlantic also noted that Hegseth said early in the conflict that the U.S. would fight with “no stupid rules of engagement” and “no politically correct wars.” An anonymous Pentagon official confirmed to The Atlantic that the DoD is “currently undergoing a strategic reassessment to inform its future reorganization.” A Pentagon inspector general report this spring determined that the DoD’s cuts to civilian-harm protections may have violated laws designed to protect noncombatants, The Atlantic reported.
Ohhh we remember that, yes, we do. Hegseth doesn’t care about the Code of Conduct or the Law of War manual. He thinks that’s old-fashioned, outdated, possibly politically correct. Let’s smack him with it, because those things are *dense*. They were written for very, very good reasons. They’re still around for very, very good reasons. But Hegseth doesn’t believe in that. Hegseth can go jump. It’s yet another reason that Hegseth does not belong in his position. His lack of intelligence is disturbing.
“Over the last year, we have seen a total disconnect between the willingness to wage wars all over the world, at an unprecedented pace and scale, while at the same time all but abandoning their leading role in setting up the systems and approaches needed to better protect civilians,” Emily Tripp, the head of Airwars, an independent UK-based watchdog, told The Atlantic.
That isn’t working very well for the Iran war or the Ukraine war. Some people don’t believe in such things. It’s an “oops”. It’s not about the people who were killed. They aren’t “acceptable losses”. Hegseth likes to see explosions, just like his boss does. The two of them apparently didn’t think about anything close to a plan. Now we are where we are. We’re stuck. Trump can’t make up his mind what to do because of his vanity, his ego.
We can bet Hegseth doesn’t have any ideas either. But at least someone is getting him under control here. Finally, the Pentagon is going over the changes he’s made, and it looks as if some of them will be reversed because he was wrong. Just like he’s done with the military and forcing people into retirement, if not flat-out firing them. The Pentagon is looking at Hegseth’s version of waste, fraud, and abuse. He was wrong. And there’s no way he can pretend it was someone else’s decision.
See you soon!
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