Until two days ago, Pete Hegseth was basically known for being on TV. He was a political commentator for Fox News. Now, since January, he will be at the head of the largest army in the world.. He is the person who Donald Trump has chosen as secretary of defense and another example of the president-elect prioritizing fidelity over preparedness in shaping his cabinet.
Because, what merits does Peter Brian Hegseth have to have been chosen? He is a friend of Trump (he was already his occasional advisor during the first administration). Because his military or national security experience has not been at a high level. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is true, but neither led nor managed (he did not go beyond leading an infantry platoon).
Today he is an officer in the U.S. Army National Guard (i.e., in the reserves). Hegseth has been closely associated with the veterans’ constituency. He was executive director of Vets for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America. But he is not known to be sufficiently qualified to head the U.S. Armywhich today is made up of 2.86 million people, of which 1.29 million are active duty troops.
Of Norwegian descent, Hegseth was born in Minneapolis on June 6, 1980.. He holds degrees from Princeton (in Arts) and Harvard (in Public Policy). At Princeton, he was the editor of a student-run conservative publication. His political involvement was always to support conservative and, more specifically, Republican options.
Infantry platoon leader
Worked as an equity capital markets analyst. In 2004, as an infantry officer in the Minnesota National Guard, ended up at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.where he served as an infantry platoon leader. He earned a medal.
On his return, Hegseth volunteered to serve in Iraq. In Baghdad he was an infantry platoon leader and in Samarra, a civilian and military operations officer. He received the Bronze Star Medal, the Combat Infantryman’s Badge and a second Army Commendation Medal.
Back in the U.S., he worked at a conservative think tank, a job he left to go to Vets For Freedom as executive director. It was 2007 and he stayed there until 2012. That year he returned to active duty in Afghanistan, as a captain in the Minnesota Army National Guard. Hegseth served as a senior counterinsurgency instructor at the Kabul training center.
He returned home and became the executive director of Concerned Veterans for America, a non-profit organization, backed by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch, that works for further privatization of the Administration’s department devoted to veterans’ affairs. He had no qualms about hiring his brother.
The man with the tattoos
Hegseth is covered with tattoos. He already liked them in his youth, but first his father forbade it and then the Army (there were restrictions). The fact is that he could not do it until he was well into his 30s.. The first was for love: “My wife, Jen, has a very small tattoo on her left bicep. A few years ago, when we were on vacation, I decided to get a matching one and that was my gateway drug.” he told The Big Lead in 2020. Because Hegseth realized: “This Is something I’ve always wanted to do.”
He began with a cross on the forearm with a sword in the center (Matthew 10:34: “I have not come to bring peace, but a sword”). He counted that it was to be limited to the right breast and arm. “So I have 11 or 12 more on my right arm… I have some blanks staring back at me,” he explained.
His tattoos are a summary of his ideology and thinking. “God and country. The units I served with in the Army. My We The People is probably the most prominent one I have, which is on my forearm,” he said. It’s also on his bicep a large flag with the AR-15 he carried in Iraq.a caricature of Benjamin Franklin and the serpent Join or Die (and the Deus Vult (God wills it), which was the cry of the crusaders.
My whole breastplate is a Jerusalem cross. Israel, Christianity and my faith are things that matter a lot to me.”
Being in the city of Bethlehem he tattooed himself Yehweh (Jesus, in Hebrew). “My whole breastplate is a cross from Jerusalem. Israel, Christianity and my faith are things that matter a lot to me,” he told in that interview….
Pardoning those convicted of war crimes
In 2016, Hegseth emerged as a supporter of Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. In fact, he served as a occasional advisor to the president. during his first term.
At the time, he persuaded Trump to pardon three US soldiers. indicted or convicted of war crimes related to the shooting of noncombatants in Iraq. Hegseth has consistently defended the treatment of inmates detained at Guantanamo.
But the important thing is the Pentagon
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While the Pentagon is considered a key post in any government, the secretary of defense was a tumultuous one during Trump’s first term. The president’s relationship with his civilian and military leaders was fraught with tension as they struggled to moderate ‘sui generis’ presidential pronouncements, the Los Angeles Times recounts. It was so that as many as five men held office during the four years of that presidency (2016-2020). Many of the generals who worked in that first administration have deemed Trump unfit to be the tenant of the Oval Office.
When he threw an axe on a man
He has been a commentator for Fox since 2014 and the face of their show. Fox & Friends. There he met Trump and there, with his regular appearances on the show, their friendship was born. Today the network celebrates the election of one of its own as secretary of defense.. In a statement, Fox News has praised Hegseth’s military knowledge, saying his “insights and analysis, especially about the military, resonated deeply with our viewers.”
But of Hegseth’s early days on TV, one remembers that episode in which he he threw an axe at a man. It was Jeffrey Prosperie, a drummer in the Hellcats band at West Point, who had been a guest on his show on Fox.
As a video shows, Hegseth threw an axe at him and hit him in the arm. He was sued but it was all settled with a settlement secret agreement between the parties. Fox News said it was an “unfortunate and completely unintentional” incident.
An army without women
Hegseth wants the U.S. military to be more lethal and has therefore questioned the role of women in combat. In his view, allowing women to occupy combat roles harms troop effectiveness.
We should not have women in combat roles because it makes us neither more effective nor more lethal.”
“Everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat means casualties are worse,” he said during a recent interview. “I’m clearly saying that we shouldn’t have women in combat rolesIt has not made us more effective, it has not made us more lethal, it has made fighting more complicated,” she said.
According to Hegseth, white men and men of other ethnic groups can do their job on the battlefield equally well, but not women. He believes that by including them in battle groups, “we’ve changed the standards by putting them there, which means you’ve changed the capability of that unit.”