Trump and Hegseth’s blundering show for military brass

President Trump and defense secretary Pete Hegseth wasted a large part of the army money and the precious time of almost 1,000 best offices from the armed forces who have been ordered to leave their posts in the world and meet in a base in Virginia to hear two Stupid and non -American speeches by Hegseth and Trump.

The defense secretary, who has never been beyond being an adult of the army and who is now holding his position exclusively because Trump found a sufficiently decent televised showman, had the cheek to say to a room full of military officers that they and their colleagues had been potentially promoted following Woke or Dei rather than merit.

Hegseth continued his misunderstanding of modern soldiers by denigrating women and others who did not conform to his ideal designed for television of an army of strong and wild men, trotting his obsession with what he calls “warrior spirit”. Hegseth made it very important that it sounds very important as a prayer to become comfortable ignoring American and international law by denouncing “politically correct and authoritarian rules of engagement” and repeatedly reiterating that the role of the army was, in its opinion, mainly to kill enemies.

The fact that Hegseth and the White House expect to order troops in active service to engage in an illegal activity has already been to some extent established by their strikes against what no one disputes civilian ships in the Caribbean. Even if these destroyed boats were, as supported by the administration, the drug addicts, there is no authorization to use the mortal military force on alleged criminals which constitute no threat to the military, and neither Hegseth nor any other official of Trump even tried to present one.

It now seems that this is what Hegseth expects in other contexts: the troops obeying orders to use an overwhelming force, even when it is inappropriate or categorically illegal. That’s wrong. The army has a duty to obey only legal orders. Performing illegal orders is itself illegal.

However, it was only when Trump himself approached the assembled brass that the dimensions and the extent of this meeting took shape. Trump has already deployed soldiers in active service, almost certainly illegally, in several cities in the country, saying last week that he authorized soldiers to use “full force” in Portland, Oregon, which he called, ridiculously, a war zone.

In this disjointed speech, Trump was the most explicit that he still had on his intentions, saying that the military could use cities as a “training ground” and attack “the enemy of the interior”.

Outrages come every day and it is difficult to focus public attention on everyone, but it looks very much like the President of the United States dragging military leaders around the world to tell them to be ready to fight and, by natural involvement, to kill people in the cities of the country. It is not the political theater or the disagreement of normal policy, but an incredibly dangerous effort to turn the military against their oath towards the Constitution and to protect American democracy.

Fortunately, we don’t think it will work. Despite Trump’s efforts, neither he nor Hegseth seem particularly respected among an army which, despite their best efforts, remains diversified ideologically and culturally and lends their oaths seriously. For any closing service, a reminder: the following illegal orders include personal responsibility.