Dakota Beacon

President Trump nominated Pete Hegseth to be the next Secretary of Defense. Hegseth’s name should be recognizable. He co-hosted Fox & Friends Weekend and FOX Nation documentaries. As a graduate of both Princeton and Harvard universities, he later returned his Harvard degree in protest. But that is another story. Hegseth is an Army infantry veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo.

Consider Hegseth’s words preceding his nomination. He penned his thoughts and opinions in his book “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free.” Selections cited below give credible insight as to what might be in store for the Defense Department if he is confirmed. (Hegseth prefers the old name – War Department.)

Get to know Hegseth from his quotations below.

(p. 8) “Our ongoing recruiting failures defy all past numbers. The miliary will make the excuse that three-fourths of American youth don’t qualify for the military service in the first place, but that’s only part of the story. Why can’t we entice the remainder of our young people – especially patriotic young men – to serve? …especially straight white men – who represent both the largest portion of the force and the largest drop in recruitment. It’s not a lack of recruiters, or a small recruiting budget. Both are larger than ever. And ongoing economic uncertainty, along with obscene college tuition costs, should be a recruiter’s dream. Instead, Americans no longer trust their sons and daughters in the hands of Uncle Sam. Average Americans are smart and see all the warning signs – the ism ‘days’, the rainbow ‘flags’, the forced ‘firsts’, the fake ‘extremism’, and the sheer failures. What do young people – and families – across America see that politicians and generals cannot? Or do our generals see the changes and accept them? The former is troubling; the latter is treasonous.”

            Read on from the chapter titled “Harvard and Generals: A Love Story”.

(p. 190) “The definition of duty and public service has changed radically. Today, more Americans would volunteer for an experimental vaccine than would join the military. We have seen how the radical Left wants to change the fabric of the nation, now they are aiming toward another pillar of America: her defense. And what is most alarming is that the Left is receiving aid and comfort from the civilian leadership and field grade officers who are constitutionally required to protect the very institution they seem hell-bent on destroying. If quietly, and with different explosives, our Joint Chiefs are doing to our military what Al Qaeda did to the Golden Dome Mosque in 2006 in Samarra, Iraq…”

(p. 196) “…I used to think it was a good thing that – for decades – almost every senior military officer was encouraged to attend graduate school at an “elite” university. Mostly, because civilians might learn something about the military. But the opposite happened – our military leaders didn’t learn real knowledge from civilians; they learned how to think like civilians. And too many of them contracted the woke mind virus. The majors and colonels who go to left-wing colleges later become the generals and commanders who diligently push the lunacy of higher education, with top-cover from their political leaders. They still wear camouflage; it just has a pink hue to it. This is being done knowingly. Purposely. The military had to look more like Harvard, and less like Heartbreak Ridge. And it has worked.”

(p. 196) “The Obama administration easily manipulated the feckless and politicized military brass that offered little resistance to his radical policies. Once in the Beltway, armed with their newfound academic appreciation for politically correct notions, lifelong officers became willing executers for politicians. In fact, it was the quickest way to get promoted Their value was not in their devotion to the Constitution or the warrior class, but in their willingness to take orders from a superstar president. They loved being declared “bold” and fresh” by the media more than they desired to execute their duties to the Army. They went to graduate school with that same media, after all.”

(p. 197) “What is it about this time in American history that has given us so many feckless generals? Why would leaders who have served honorably for over thirty years now decide to completely abandon all their commitments and previously proclaimed values to be on the right side of a political narrative? Or the “right side of history”? American history abounds with generals who decided that their honor and fidelity were more important than surviving a political storm. They stepped away from their posts rather than retreating from their convictions. The answer is pretty straightforward: courage has surrendered to safety, merit surrendered to equity, and honor surrendered to ideology. Careers, not the Constitution, are the highest calling of our general class. To save themselves, they have surrendered our warriors.”

Throughout his book Hegseth details more, much more, about the domestic assault on the American military. How did diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as well as critical race theory (CRT) become so prevalent at all military service academies? Why the push to place women in the infantry while denigrating men – especially white males? On the answers to these questions and more Hegseth waxes eloquently. His book offers great insight into the thinking of the person who, with Senate confirmation, will be our next Secretary of Defense.

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).