The Uniform Is Not Invincible: Firing Generals Is Critical to Restoring Military Lethality
Will Thibeau
President Trump and Secretary of Defense Hegseth relieved the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, chief of Naval Operations, and vice chief of staff of the Air Force, along with the main service judge advocates, in a decision the media and political establishment decried as authoritarian and reckless. Even in April, Secretary Hegseth relieved Shoshana Chatfield, who exposed her own ideology by urging skepticism of American laws, given the density of white men serving in the U.S. Congress.
Given the intense politicization of the military over the last many decades, these firings should be just the start to a total and critical reset of the military’s senior leadership class.
The current crop of general and flag officers has been formed in a defense policy era defined by liberalism and the mandate that the military accommodate the politics and ideologies of civil society. The Biden administration was perhaps the final incarnation of the false and dangerous idea that the military could retain professional competence and respect while driving the cause of identity politics in America.
The American Principles Project conducted a survey that indicated a distrust of military leaders as the most-cited reason why Americans do not want their kids to join the military. Independent research published by the Center for Renewing America identified almost 90 generals and admirals who politicized their service to a compromising degree. This includes the likes of Vice Admiral Chatfield, but also Air Force Lieutenant General Tony Bauernfeind, who explicitly called for a tiered system of quotas and different standards to meet diversity demands.
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https://spectator.org/uniform-not-invincible-firing-general-military/
