| THE U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE IS IN WAY OVER HIS HEAD AND IT LOOKS AND SOUNDS HEARTLESS Perspective from the 19th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write. I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf. The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie. And it is where you want to be on a golf course. A day or two ago, I published a blog that, using two talented and experienced media commentators, laid out the pros and cons of the United States going to war in Iran.One of the commentators I relied on was Tom Nichols, a prominent American academic, author, and staff writer at The Atlantic known for his expertise in international affairs, Russia, and national security. A former professor at the U.S. Naval War College, he is best known for the 2017 book The Death of Expertise, which critiques the decline of trust in expert knowledge. Today, I rely on Nichols again to provide detail under the headline I wrote for this blog, a follow-on to my earlier one, which, this time, shows that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has no idea what he is doing. And, incredibly, he violates all of the norms about honoring American military service personnel who died in any war, including in the first days of this one.Without further comments, here is what Nichols wrote: ********* |
| The United States is at war. Americans, at such a time, might expect their government to speak to them regularly and report on U.S. goals — and casualties — but so far, they have gotten little beyond pre-recorded videos of the president and some sound bites from various officials. Even Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has held only a few briefings. Perhaps the Pentagon chief’s reluctance to speak to the press is just as well, because many Americans would be alarmed to realize that their sons and daughters in combat are being overseen by a person as callous as Pete Hegseth. This morning, the defense secretary gave a briefing on the war that quickly degenerated into Trump-like bombast. Hegseth apparently prefers to sound more like a Call of Duty player leading a raid than a sober and judicious secretary of defense: “Death and destruction from the sky all day,” he said, along with other empty phrases such as “We’re playing for keeps.” Most reporters are now accustomed to Hegseth’s drama-laden antics. But even by the low standards he has set, he managed to shock many of them when he cynically used the deaths of U.S. military personnel to air his own grievances with the press. On Sunday morning, an Iranian drone hit a makeshift operations center in Kuwait. The Pentagon says that six Americans are dead. Not only is this event a tragedy, but it also requires an explanation: The drone reportedly snuck through U.S. defenses without setting off any alerts, and struck a target that now seems to have been unduly vulnerable to aerial attack. The defense secretary, the man who is supposed to carry this news to the American public and mourn with them, instead whined about the unfairness of it all. “When a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it’s front-page news. I get it,” Hegseth told the reporters, military personnel, and civilians gathered this morning in the Pentagon. “The press only wants to make the president look bad, but try for once to report the reality. The terms of this war will be set by us at every step. As I said Monday, the mission is laser-focused.” “Tragic things happen”? Hegseth said this as though it is unreasonable to look any closer at such events. He seems unable to grasp that the deaths of Americans are not merely a public-relations problem: When a drone slips through U.S. defenses and kills six members of America’s armed forces, the deaths of those servicepeople are the story. The people of the United States deserve to know what happened and why. Hegseth complaining that he’s not getting credit for all of the drones that didn’t get through is like an airline executive responding to an air disaster by growling about all of the planes his company made that didn’t crash. Unlike Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine opened his remarks by grieving the deaths of the fallen soldiers, saying that “it’s with profound sadness and gratitude that I share the names of four of our six fallen heroes.” He didn’t have the names of the other two, because while Hegseth was griping about media coverage, the U.S. military was completing the next-of-kin notification. “Our nation stands with you,” Caine told Gold Star parents, wounded warriors, and their families, “and we are eternally grateful for your courage, your resiliency, your devotion to this mission and to our nation.” The contrast was unsettling. For years, defense secretaries and top generals have carried the anguish of decisions that have led to troop deaths. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates has said that he wept as he read the stories of the fallen; some generals have carried photos of those lost under their command — even into their retirement. Hegseth, instead, noted the losses almost in passing, and used them as a vehicle for his ongoing beefs with the press. But Hegseth wasn’t content merely to carp about the coverage of American deaths. After expressing his irritation at the press, he decided to trash America’s allies. Instead of simply praising Israel — America’s only ally in this war — he took a needless shot at other nations, saying that U.S. allies in the past provided only “ancillary benefits” in global conflicts because they were “maybe willing but not as capable” as the Israelis. Hegseth made this preposterous claim in front of military people who had fought in previous wars alongside these allies — and who saw many service members from these nations sacrifice their life alongside their American comrades. In the midst of all this, Hegseth provided at least one moment of clarity: He showed, yet again, why he is an execrable choice to lead the Pentagon. Like his boss, he does not talk to the American people so much as put on performances for them, and this morning, he played the role of the Fox News pundit castigating other journalists. But the people in the briefing room were doing their job trying to get the facts. Unlike Hegseth, they are taking their responsibilities seriously: This is not a game, it’s not a TV show, and it’s not some adolescent test of wills. Pete Hegseth, if he does not resign, should at least get out of the way and let better men than him talk to the nation and to the press. No one is asking for classified details to be revealed in public; no one expects Periclean rhetoric from a talk-show host. But the people of the United States deserve more of an explanation of what’s happening in this war, and they certainly deserve more of an encomium for their fallen children than “Tragic things happen.” ********* My summary comment: Nichols is dead-on when he says Hegseth should get out of the way because there is no way that unqualified person should hold the top position he does. He is not up to it and all of us are worse off because of his abhorrent behavior. |
Perspective from the 19th Hole 