No New Wars!

[auroraave]

And again why, I look at the people he has around him. We get hung up on the personality but it's really the entire organization. You look at presidents getting elected, left or right they at least tend to install competent people to actually run things. Trump has a talk show host as his secretary of defense, he sends his son in law to negotiate with the Iranians.

I have my issues with Trump but I think that's what it really is. Whatever our disagreements might be, have the sense to have competent advisors and listen to them. That to me is where I think he's really fallen down on this thing.

Agreed.

As always, skipping the relevant part.... "Hegseth was a talk show host" - not defending the cabinet - but to suggest Hegseth doesn't have military military experience - to suggest he was pull;ed off the air ramdomly - you are either misinformed or intentionally omitting this fact in your never-ending drive to do your "OMG Trump!" routine.

AI Overview
Pete Hegseth is a former U.S. Army National Guard officer (Major) who served for over a decade, with combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and a stint in Guantánamo Bay. A Princeton graduate, he earned two Bronze Star Medals and the Combat Infantryman Badge. He later became a prominent conservative author and Fox News host before being named Secretary of War in 2025.
Britannica
Britannica
+5
Military Career Highlights:
Service Branch: Joined the Army National Guard in 2003 after completing ROTC.
Rank: Achieved the rank of Major.
Deployments:
Guantánamo Bay: Served as an infantry officer (platoon leader).
Iraq: Served as a platoon leader in Baghdad (2005-2006).
Afghanistan: Served as a counterinsurgency instructor.
Awards: Two Bronze Star Medals, Combat Infantryman Badge, Joint Service Commendation Medal, and two Army Commendation Medals.

SO, were you not aware of any of this or were you intentionally omitting it as part of your "I hate Trump" narrative? The 'OMG he was a talk show host! is LITERALLY the narrative from the left and the whackadoodles at CNN.

Which is it? Are you ignorant, or intentionally misleading?

I am not defending the pick - I do not know the quality of his candidacy - I just love to point out people being completely full of shit while being completely unaware of the truth

[gil]

What you write is all true (I think). But often people are characterized by their most recent job, aren't they?

I was against Hegseth's appointment. He obviously had a solid military career and is well educated. But is that enough to be running a huge organization that oversees so much that is vital to our interests? A serious question: In recent times has there been someone as secretary of defense who was *less* qualified than Hegseth?

[Donn Beach]

So elements of the MAGA movement are questioning the Trump shooting. They do love their conspiracies

Tim Dillon

"I think that maybe it was staged....Some people are going to be upset by this, but we staged the assassination attempt in Butler to show people how important it was to vote for me and how far I was willing to go for them.”

Terms of secretary of defense. I don't see the post as being about military experience as its about civilian authority over the military. Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld was a naval officer but that's not why he was secretary of defense, Caspar W. Weinberger, Chuck Hagel was in the military but again that was not what his being secretary of defense turned on. It's a civilian, political, diplomatic position, it's not a military position.