Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s Defense secretary nominee, is scheduled for his Senate confirmation hearing tomorrow. Some have asked why Trump chose a Fox News personality without legislative experience to head the largest federal agency.
Consider that one of Trump’s priorities is eradicating wokeism from our armed forces — a plague President Joe Biden exacerbated and Hegseth is committed to defeating.
Hegseth served in the Army National Guard with tours in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, receiving two Bronze Stars and two Army Commendation Medals.
In his best-selling book “War on Warriors,” Hegseth explains why wokeism is deleterious to the military’s ethos. It is easy to see why Hegseth should lead the fight against wokeism, the biggest threat to our national security.
The same institution Hegseth was willing to sacrifice his life for ultimately labeled him an extremist and threw him out. After Jan. 6, 2021, Hegseth’s orders to support the Inauguration as part of the D.C. National Guard were revoked because the military dubbed him a white nationalist based on the cross on his chest.
Despite this, Hegseth believes the only way forward is to save our military.
While our service members were fighting wars overseas, we missed the war raging back home. America’s domestic enemies seized cultural, political and spiritual territory. The Left injected into the military things anathema to the core purpose of it — DEI, CRT, feminism, genderism, safetyism, climate hysteria — leading to the breakdown of the military’s lethality.
“The military is founded on fidelity to the Constitution, it has allowed itself to be captured by anti-constitutional Marxist philosophy,” states Hegseth. An example of this is the military’s quota system, abandoning merit-based promotions for social equity. Military leaders are advancing a grievance culture, hunting for racism, pushing for gender equality, and embracing trans ideology.
In his book, Hegseth discusses manufactured extremism in the military. In February 2021, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered all Department of Defense personnel to discuss extremism within the ranks.
Gen. Mark Milley, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suddenly decided racism was a problem in the military. He ordered the removal of all photographs from promotion processes to emphasize DEI and supported the creation of DEI boards labeling hairstyles as discriminatory. As a result, many soldiers were kicked out.
In a 2021 House committee hearing on extremism, Milley said he wants “to understand white rage.” The Pentagon’s research lab released a report on “patriot extremism.” This led to removal of conservatives from the military, all because of a problem that did not exist. Hegseth explains the irony: A study from the Biden administration revealed that the military is actually less racist and extreme than the general population.
While the data and studies in Hegseth’s book are an important component of the fight, it is Hegseth’s direct experiences with wokeism that makes him ideally situated to stop it. During the summer of 2021, Hegseth confronted rioters in D.C. following the death of George Floyd.
He describes the steadfast courage of black soldiers holding the line while protesters shouted obscenities and threw bricks and urine bottles, calling them traitors. Antifa and BLM attempted to turn the black soldiers against the white soldiers. But the soldiers all stood united. They held the line with honor and discipline, refusing to let skin color distract from unity and brotherhood.
That strong sense of self Hegseth credits for the soldiers’ ability to resist such brutal taunts was formed during military service. Hegseth explains that the protestors could have channeled that passion into military service, but instead found a terrible form of heroism because our government failed to inspire goodness.
It is this cowardly leadership, Hegseth argues, that shuns honor, selflessness and courage, and embraces optics-obsessed performativity and careerism. Generals are not honest about failures, such as Afghanistan, for which no one has been held accountable to this day. To fix this, Hegseth believes in firing cowardly leaders and prohibiting retired generals from working in the military-industrial complex.
Hegseth, unlike most of D.C.’s leadership, understands the danger of gender radicalism in the military. The military’s “very special forces,” as Hegseth calls them, are the transgender soldiers catered to by military leaders seeking to tank readiness.
In 2022, the military waived standards for post-op trans members despite evidence they are not deployable. People can join the military for the purpose of transitioning, be non-deployable and do hormone therapy, all at the expense of American taxpayers.
The goal, under a Trump-Hegseth Department of Defense, will be to stop this because the mission comes first.
In anticipation of Hegseth’s confirmation hearing, we expect Hegseth will be challenged on his no women in combat view. Hegseth correctly identifies the military lowered standards and redefined goals to be more conducive to women’s success, leading to an effeminate force putting everyone at risk.
Studies show gender integration is a bad idea. Treating men and women as equals is the quickest way to get killed.
Hegseth argues men need purpose, not inclusion. “I rewired my brain to see every struggle as the dedication of my soul to the outcome,” he states.
The nominee believes we must fight the Left’s anti-warrior radicalism to recover strength, honor and merit. If we lose our military, we lose everything. “No matter how bad things get, I believe I will not be the last Hegseth to wear the uniform,” he states in reference to his sons.
Nicole Kiprilov is a Republican strategist, the executive director of The American Border Story, the president of the Coalition for Military Excellence, and a Portfolio Manager at The America Fund. She is a fellow at Independent Women’s Forum and Club for Growth Foundation. She frequently appears on Newsmax, One America News, and Real America’s Voice.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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