One wonders how members of the US military react to the bellicose, largely incompetent Trump regime. A friend who is in the National Guard reports that not much has changed during their stints of service, but that co-workers feel hopeful that at least their immediate leadership won't be doing anything illegal or immoral.
However reporting suggests there is lots of evidence that the TV-lightweight Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is not inspiring confidence in the ranks. They weren't looking for a poseur, an actor playing at being a tough guy.
Military.com covers the armed forces with journalistic integrity. It reports that Hegseth is no inspiraton:
Instead of the standard suit and tie, he regularly appears in khaki hiking pants, rolled-up sleeves that reveal tattooed forearms and occasionally a trucker hat emblazoned with an American flag. He often posts videos and photos of himself working out with troops.
But that carefully curated image -- so different from past defense secretaries -- may not be totally landing with the rank and file. Interviews with service members and a review of hundreds of social media posts on message boards suggest the image the Pentagon chief is trying to project is seen by some as overly manufactured and desperate for affirmation.
"He seems too preoccupied with his personal brand," one Army captain told Military.com on the condition of anonymity to avoid retaliation. "This is the 'vet bro' Pentagon."
Across military Reddit forums and enlisted meme pages, Hegseth has become a regular target of satire, often referred to with nicknames such as "DUI Hire," "Whiskey Leaks" and "Kegseth." The references allude to past controversies, including alleged alcohol abuse and an incident in which he shared sensitive Yemen attack plan details in an unsecured Signal group chat that included a journalist.
After the shit shows that were the Iraq and Afghanistan campaigns, the military has struggled to professionalize and diversify its personnel. The Trump boys want to go back to the good old days of Abu Ghraib and no constraints from the laws of war. And Hegseth seems to yearn for a military mostly of white men that does not exist. In 2019, 17.5 percent of enlisted personnel were women; a little over 30 percent were non-white. (Some overlap there, obviously.) And he's kicking out perhaps some 15,000 successfully serving trans folk.
Many who spoke with Military.com remarked that the military, especially the rank and file, don't have time to be focused on the kind of policy moves that Hegseth is making. They are more concerned with their day-to-day lives in the military -- an area that Hegseth and his team have largely been silent on in their view.
"It's a lot of 'look at me' stuff. He has said nothing about quality of life," Rob Evans, an Army veteran whose Yelp-style app Hots & Cots collects reviews of housing and dining facilities on military bases. "If he's for the troops, why has he not touched on quality-of-life challenges, whether that's food or housing?"
... Ultimately, several service members told Military.com they feel Hegseth's idea of what a defense secretary is expected to do doesn't line up with what the job actually requires of him.
"He'd make a great company commander," one officer said. "But that's not the job he's in right now."
Meanwhile, online, one Reddit member who is widely known on the Navy’s forum as a recently retired Navy captain, recently wrote that Hegseth and others in the Trump administration “are not the leaders we need or deserve.”
“If you are left leaning, Hegseth only serves to poke at and antagonize you. If you are right leaning, he only serves to embarrass and demoralize you with his incompetence,” they added.
Hegseth's antics are not a hit with people who take their missions seriously.
No comments:
Post a Comment