There has been a “Well I Swan” reaction this week in certain quarters to President-Elect Donald Trump’s choice for Secretary of Defense.  The big concerns seem to be that Pete Hegseth is a Fox News host; that he lacks

defense policy experience or foreign policy chops

that he has certain tattoos; and – oh, hey, the Washington Post just found out that he entered into a settlement with a woman last year over an allegation of sexual assault in 2017.  

Side bar:  Hegseth was not arrested or charged with a crime.  Accordingly, can a #MeToo advocate please clarify in this case whether we should “Believe All Women” or … well, not?

Back to the main subject.  The sole focus of an organization needs to be its mission.  In the case of the US military, the mission is national defense.  To carry that out under the dangerous, high stress condition of combat, unit preparedness and cohesiveness has to be the sole focus to the exclusion of everything else – especially irrelevant, downright damaging elements such as political correctness and marginal, radical pop culture fads.

The Biden/Harris administration, preceded by the Obama/Biden administration, has imbued the US military with a significant component of the latter, thereby jeopardizing troop readiness and national defense.

The introduction to the US military of aspects that are distractive from and actually harmful to its mission has its foundation in the gauzy, perilous delusions of recent years.

Boys can (and should) be turned into girls and vice versa.  Open borders are fine and have no cost, human or financial.  Violent criminals above victims and justice.  Shutting down reliable energy sources for intermittent, unready sources will work out just fine.

All of this is obviously wrong on its face.  Now there is an attempt to add to the list: a military distracted and diverted from its mission can provide a robust national defense.  

The situation has devolved to the point that what would have ordinarily been important factors in the choice for Secretary of Defense – his/her defense and foreign policy experience – are now secondary because we need to return the US military to basics. 

Peter Hegseth has advocated strongly for this: a return to a focus on the mission.

For the country’s national defense and to maximize the safety of our valued troops, this needs to happen and happen quickly.

In short, Hegseth and President Trump are correct: the United States military needs warriors, not culture warriors.

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