"Our task is to prepare for war. And to win it."
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth gave a clear signal to the hundreds of American generals he summoned a few days ago for a completely extraordinary meeting at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia.
"Peace through war," the secretary added, speaking of a "key moment": "The era of the Department of Defense is over. Welcome to the Department of War," he said, referring to the Pentagon's name change, which was made concrete thanks to an executive order by the US president in early September.
“Irresponsible and foolish political leaders have set the compass in the wrong direction and we have lost our way. We have become the ‘woke department.’ We must erase decades of decline. For too long we have promoted leaders for the wrong reasons: based on their race, gender quotas, so-called historical privileges,” he added. “Now we must clean up the mess. We are ending the war on warriors.”
Hegseth announced that “gender-neutral” directives will be adopted immediately: troops will have to meet masculine training standards, regardless of their gender.
“It’s not about preventing women from serving. We value the contributions of military women very much. They are all the absolute best in the world. But when it comes to jobs that require physical strength for results in war, physical standards should be high and gender neutral. If women can excel, great. If not, so be it. It’s not the goal, but it could be the result. It also means that weak men won’t be able to serve in war, because we’re not playing. This is a matter of life and death.”
“The era of ‘politically correct’ leadership, careful not to hurt anyone’s feelings, ends now, and at all levels. This administration has done much since day one to remove the politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department. No more ‘identity’ months, no more DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) office, no more climate change worship, division, distractions or gender illusions. We are done with this s**t.”
To those who do not approve of this approach, Hegseth suggested they "make the most respectful gesture: resign."
The meeting of hundreds of high-ranking American military officials is, in terms of scale and reasons, a completely unusual event; many present feared that it could herald cuts in the armed forces (in May Hegseth had indicated that commanders should be reduced by at least 20% and that about 100 generals and admirals should be cut from about 800 in the US and dozens abroad.
Hegseth is also preparing a new national defense strategy: it is expected that "internal security and defense" will become the main priority of the armed forces (which have been sent, for example, to the border with Mexico), after years in which China was considered the main threat to US national security.