The Secretary of Defense of the United States is one of the most important jobs in the entire world. The person nominated for this role needs to be someone of the highest character and with the credentials and experience to match. This is why the nomination of Pete Hegseth to be Secretary of Defense by President-elect Donald Trump is one of the most absurd and egregious nominations in our nation’s history. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so dangerous.
I am a former Army Captain in the 82nd Airborne Division and now serve on the board of an organization called Veterans for Responsible Leadership. We seek to ensure and demand that our nation’s leaders are ones that will always put principles over power and remain loyal to the constitution above all else. There are three items in Pete Hegseth’s past that I wanted to highlight that make him completely unqualified for the role. They are his past comments about women’s roles in the military, his comments denigrating the VA, and his personal character flaws that are unacceptable for a leader in this role.
First, in a recently released podcast, Hegseth said the military “should not have women in combat roles” and that “men in those positions are more capable.” He went on to continue to say that women are life-givers, not life takers.” It is hard to think of anything more demeaning and more misogynistic than that. Women make up about 20% of our military now and they deserve a Secretary of Defense that respects them fully and treats them as equals.
I remember when I was conducting airborne jump training at Fort Liberty and there was a female lieutenant in my unit who was only 4 feet 10 inches tall. She was the jumper right in front of me and we were all required to have at least 40 pounds of gear in our ruck sacks while jumping. She never complained about it for one second and carried the exact same amount of weight as me, who is 6 feet 1 inches tall. We both completed the jump successfully and carried on with our training mission. She volunteered to be in the airborne and she proved that she was as capable as any other soldier in our unit. Women warfighters across our great military just like her deserve our respect and it is unacceptable and shameful that a man that has made such disparaging comments is even being considered for Secretary of Defense.
Second, as CEO of the veterans organization Concerned Veterans for America, a group backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, Hegseth lobbied for providing VA health care only to veterans with service-connected disabilities and specialized needs.
That policy would significantly restrict the number of future veterans eligible for VA care at all. Hegseth’s skepticism of the wide array of government benefits veterans have at their disposal has prompted outrage from veterans’ groups. Max Rose, an Army Reserve officer and Democratic former congressman who now serves as a senior adviser for progressive veteran organization VoteVets, called Hegseth’s remarks “massively disrespectful” to veterans, who have been trusted “to go to war, to protect the homeland, defend our rights, and our way of life – and then we think they will come home and be an abusers of health care services?”
I am someone that uses the VA as my primary healthcare provider and although it is a far from perfect service, I have received quality care when I have needed it the most and the VA has been a blessing to me and my family. We should not be trying to privatize the VA. Veterans have earned this specialized care and treatment and Pete Hegseth clearly has no respect for the thousands of VA employees that go to work every day to take care of and improve the lives of our nation’s veterans.
Lastly, I wanted to speak to Pete Hegseth’s complete lack of moral character and how his confirmation would bring dishonor to our great military. While a host on Fox News and in his publications, Pete continually likes to denigrate liberals as being morally corrupt and ruining this country. He goes off on so-called “woke” generals, which just means that he doesn’t like generals that respect diversity in the military. This same old and tired playbook was used when President Truman first integrated African Americans into the military back in 1948. Critics back then said that they did not want the military to be used as a “social experiment” and Pete is really showing his true colors by echoing these attacks on diversity now.
Hegseth has also been allegedly accused of sexual assault. He has cheated on all three of his wives and has a history of excessive drinking. I know no one is perfect and this does not mean that he does not deserve a shot at redemption, but this should mean that he is wholly unfit to serve as Secretary of Defense. Shouldn’t high character and morality still matter in our elected officials? The military does not tolerate infidelity and public intoxication from its uniformed officers. Then why should we accept it from the man chosen to lead all of them? This is a slap in the face to all who have served and are currently serving. I urge you all to contact Senator Tillis and Senator Budd’s offices to demand that they reject this disgraceful nomination.
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