The Spleen Vented Against Hegseth Over Firing the

A month into the battle with Iran, the hatred of Secretary of War Pete Hegseth continues its exponential growth. The latest assault is by former Naval War College college member Tom Nichols, whose declare to fame is declaring himself, despite mountains of evidence to the opposite, to be an skilled. In a piece in The Atlantic, one of those magazines/shops that everybody says they read, but no one actually does, called “Hegseth’s War on America’s Military,” Nichols lambastes Hegseth for truly shaping the U.S. navy.

Hegseth started his tenure by performing against what he sees as a Pentagon infested with DEI hires. He pushed for the elimination of the then–chairman of the Joint Chiefs, C. Q. Brown, who is Black, and he fired a raft of feminine navy leaders, changing them all with males. But dumping the Army chief of employees in the center of a battle, without clarification, is a reckless transfer even by Hegseth’s requirements. George is a adorned fight veteran who was slated to keep in his job until 2027, and he has never publicly feuded with Hegseth—despite having good purpose to do so.

Trump and Hegseth have been on a clear mission to politicize the U.S. navy, and to flip it into an armed extension of the MAGA motion. Hegseth often proselytizes, both for Trump and for his right-wing evangelical beliefs, from the Pentagon podium. He has intervened in Army promotions, just lately culling 4 colonels—two Black males and two ladies—from the checklist for development to brigadier common. (This could also be the tip of the iceberg: NBC is now reporting that Hegseth has also canceled the promotions, across a number of companies, of at least a dozen minority and feminine officers.) When two Army helicopters buzzed a political rally and then flew to MAGA favourite Kid Rock’s home, Hegseth short-circuited the Army’s suspension of the pilots and squashed an investigation into their actions. In preserving with the best American civil-military traditions, George and other senior navy leaders have been remarkably disciplined in preserving their ideas out of the public eye.

First off, no one, least of all the former management at the Department of War, would deny that the Pentagon, from Obama’s first time period through the appointment of Pete Hegseth, was consumed with DEI and all of its permutations. The Air Force had racial and gender quotas for pilots. The Army has related quotas for senior instructions. Mental sickness disguised as inappropriate dysfunction, or vice versa, was imposed on the companies and funds allotted for the mandatory “addadictomy” and “takadicfromy” surgical procedures (hat tip to the late, great, and lamented Rush Limbaugh for those phrases). Women had been shoehorned into profession fields where they may not bodily do the job and grew to become liabilities to themselves and everybody else for the sake of creating firsts.

Nichols, along with many other online midwits, was significantly incensed when Hegseth fired Army Chief of Staff Randy George; see Pete Hegseth Gives the Army Chief of Staff His Walking Papers – RedState. “But dumping the Army chief of staff in the middle of a war, without explanation, is a reckless move even by Hegseth’s standards,” rages Nichols.

Being an skilled and all, I’d have thought Nichols would bear in mind that a) the battle with Iran doesn’t contain the U.S. Army in any significant manner at this juncture, and b) the Army Chief of Staff, even in a ground battle, doesn’t command something, he’s accountable for |organizing, training, equipping, and sustaining Army forces for combatant commanders.” Combatant commanders fight the war. All three- and four-star officers serve at the pleasure of the president, and when the Secretary of War tells them it is time to leave, they leave. I don’t have any more knowledge of General George’s performance than does Nichols, though I have one helluva lot more understanding of what George’s job entails. The Secretary of War is entitled to build a team of leaders in which he has trust and confidence that they will carry out all the lawful orders issued to them, and will do so “without any mental reservation or goal of evasion.”

Even if George carried out flawlessly but didn’t mesh with Hegseth, it’s better for everybody if he goes away. And explaining a personnel transfer not only makes it apparent that you might be weak and looking for the media’s adulation, but it could also violate the law.

There are three threads working through this story.

First, many common officers have come to see themselves as political free brokers. They cavort with Congressional aides behind the back of the administration they serve. They surreptitiously make price range offers despite the official place of the Department of War and the president. They leak like sieves to promote and denigrate strategic choices that benefit them and their profession, not the U.S. or the navy. And many of them spend that last couple of years as a common, furiously sucking up to protection contractors so they’ll eke out a retirement on a six-figure pension with a seven-figure director’s stipend.

Second, the U.S. navy actually hasn’t had anybody decide it up by the scruff of the neck and shake it like a Jack Russell terrier shaking a rat since George C. Marshall cashiered about three-fourths of Army commanders in the first yr of World War II. Groupthink guidelines. It is go-along-to-get-along. There is no room for iconoclasts. This is the mentality that produced misplaced wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and promoted the males who misplaced the battle because they belonged to the proper membership. That must change, and Hegseth is making a valiant effort to start the ball rolling.

Third, many people at home and overseas owe their careers to generals and admirals they’ve “befriended.” The anguished cries about the demise of General George persuade me that a lot of what we’re seeing is politicians and journalists crying over a helpful source. We had been all appalled when we first discovered that former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley had called his Chinese counterpart to reassure him that he, Milley, would forestall any navy motion by Trump. I feel we should always also be appalled that a former Indian admiral and Iranian simp would post this assault on Hegseth as a protection of George.

Irony. US Army chief, Gen George, rose from Private to distinguished 4-star rank, via West Point, only to be fired by a former National Guard Major who rose to cupboard rank via Fox News & Trump’s patronage. pic.twitter.com/gYDcV3AKdN

— Adm. Arun Prakash (@arunp2810) April 3, 2026

This, alone, disqualifies George from any attainable sympathy. If a Vindman is in awe of your character, there’s a downside.

General Randy George is a large public servant and soldier.

It is disappointing to see a chief of his caliber pushed apart because the president needs a yes-man.

If there are questions about the high quality of management at the Pentagon, they need to be directed at Secretary… https://t.co/ituHi8mYrj

— Congressman Eugene Vindman (@RepVindman) April 2, 2026

Contrary to Nichols’s ill-thought-out screed, Hegseth hasn’t “declared war” on the American navy. He’s a man on a mission with no endurance for anybody who is just not keen to embrace the adjustments the U.S. navy desperately wants if it’s not going to be trounced in a ground battle with a peer- or near-peer competitor. He appears to agree with General George C. Marshall on the eve of World War II: “Most of our senior officers on such duty are deadwood and should be eliminated from the service as rapidly as possible.” And I do not suppose you’ll be able to look at the metaphorical Trail of Tears of the last 20 years and not agree that is the case.

For many years, former presidents have been all discuss and no motion. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the menace from Iran once and for all.

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