(I am not a military veteran. I have immense respect for those who have voluntarily signed up to serve in the military. These remarks are in no way intended to disrespect those individuals for their dedication.)
Unless you have been actively avoiding the news this past week, you probably know that Pete Hegseth, the current Secretary of Defense (the official name change must be made by Congress and hasn’t been), ordered all of the military’s top leaders to Washington D.C. for an in-person meeting. The purpose of which was not officially given out when it was called. This meant ALL leaders, stationed from around the globe. The media has generally been reporting that it was about 800 people. The media also reported that this was something which has never happened within the department before.
I did a quick math exercise on this. If it cost about $2000 per person to attend, that would be a couple of nights at a hotel, a domestic flight and some meals, it cost the taxpayer about 1.8 million for Hegseth to hold this meeting. It’s likely higher than that due to the cost of flying from around the globe.
What was so important that everyone needed to be there?
Nothing.
It’s clear that he wanted to get up in front of everyone and pound his chest and talk about how the military needs to be better and tighter and clean-shaven. I watched only clips and was embarrassed by the little-boy-out-of-his-league posturing. As many have said, it could’ve been an email. A clear example of taxpayer monetary waste.
There are many comments online from media and regular Americans about how Hegseth (and Trump) are attempting to roll back humanitarian progress within our military. They are targeting what they can to get rid of anyone who is not male, heterosexual, tall, lean, strong and white. A quick internet research will reveal all kinds of facts and opinions on this matter, but it occurred to me that those elements are superficial (hurtful, awful, racist, etc…yes) compared to the problematic bigger picture.
We all can tell that Trump lives in his own world. Even his supporters see this. I’ve increasingly been able to see that that world is set in a timeline from decades ago. He doesn’t want to admit he’s almost 80 years old, with health issues. He doesn’t want to admit that he’s fat and bald. He wants to exist in a time where his money made him attractive. Although I still don’t understand that one personally. He could have 50% of all the money on the planet and I still wouldn’t find anything attractive about him. He’s simply not a good-looking man and has never had anything which resembles a decent haircut!
He blindly lives within a timeline of his own making where human beings were the force and power within our military. Neither Hegseth or Trump were alive at the end of WWII, but they lean on it (like way too many Americans do) as if it were two years ago and we’re riding the wave of winning the most-destructive war the planet has seen. It was a war that was fought with sheer numbers of human beings facing off with one another in villages and fields. Rifles were the main weapon and those were fired by human beings.
Hegseth and Trump want that type of military again. They believe it’s how we show strength and protect our country. I believe they are wrong. The Secretary of Defense, who’s job is to work with the military to develop our country’s protection systems (organizational and physical) doesn’t seem to understand we no longer live in a world where human beings are fighting wars with one another in hand-to-hand combat.
The ongoing war in Ukraine, perpetrated by Russia, doesn’t have daily headlines about clashes among soldiers. The daily headlines are about the number of drones and missiles launched at one another. Yes, soldiers are fighting in traditional ways, but not at the level they were 80 years ago in Europe and Japan.
Israel is bombarding Palestine. Again, this has been with minimal human incursions. There are constant rockets fired at, and destroying, buildings. They even fired missiles, with precision targets, at Iran. Not a single soldier from Israel (at least I didn’t read anything that said there was) stepped foot into Iran as it was being attacked.
Wars are fought by people sitting behind command stations with buttons and levers to push and pull. People are bombing one country while living peacefully in another. We are not charging up hills and overtaking villages one-by-one in the traditional war-fighting methods from decades and centuries ago.
In addition to long range rockets, drones and missiles, wars are fought by cyber-attacks and ransomware attacks. They are fought by targeting cell phone systems and electrical grids. Russia proved it could be effective in manipulating foreign elections by building hundreds or thousands of social media accounts and feeding disinformation to the people, thus creating hatred and division from within which is a war tactic all on its own. They have attacked the under-ocean pipelines and communication systems near Europe.
Trump and Hegseth are examples of toxic masculinity and exactly why it’s toxic. They are boys playing with toys believing that chiseled “warriors” will be the way they dominate the world. They are too caught up with the feeling of butterflies they get in their stomach looking at parades of soldiers marching down a street. They are too hung up on their own racist and misogynistic beliefs to see the bigger picture of what our world is today and what we need to do to make is safe. Why I say they have a toxic masculinity and that we should all be concerned about it, men and women alike, is that what they are doing is making us LESS safe from modern warfare. All because they think a white, male supremacy is all powerful.
We don’t need rows and rows of square-jawed soldiers in the same way they were needed at the beginning of the 20th century. We need critical thinkers and dedicated people who are willing to do the hard things that so many of us can’t – although I always hope they don’t have to do those things for so many people’s sake including their own.
We need a Secretary of Defense (and a President) who recognizes the world has changed and defense no longer means thousands of men with rifles. We need leadership who sees the world for what it is and organizes defense systems to meet that world. We still need the stereotypical soldier but we don’t need that person in the numbers Hegseth believes we do. We need the ATYPICAL soldier who understands the new methods of war. We need our leaders to be able to recognize that.
