Why Our Declining US Military Needs Retired Army National Guard Major Pete Hegseth

President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in a file photo. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Commentary

Pete Hegseth was not nominated by President-elect Trump to be the pastor of a church. Pete Hegseth was nominated to be the Secretary of Defense (SecDef). And for this position he brings a set of qualifications and a mindset that match up well with the challenges facing our military at this time in its storied history.

The overarching challenge is to reverse the decline of our military. And in the opinion of many, including myself, the two main factors driving this decline are the decades-long, ongoing successful attacks on our military’s meritocracy-based warrior culture, and a defense procurement system that is no longer capable of meeting our military’s needs no matter how much money we spend. Through his speaking and books, most particularly his most recent book, the “The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free,” Hegseth highlights wokeism and gives examples of how diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) ideology is destroying our military’s warfighting capability.

Of course, there are many, including those currently serving the military, who disagree with Hegseth, and they will no doubt make their case when they grill Hegseth during his Senate confirmation hearings.

What’s more, though Hegseth’s writings don’t focus on the incestuous/corrupting nature of the relationship between the Department of Defense, the defense industry, and Congress, he does identify what many call the Military Industrial Congressional Complex (MICC) as a major problem.

Putting aside for the moment the questions of DEI and the MICC, Hegseth should meet the bare minimum qualification for being the president-elect’s SecDef nominee.

First and foremost, the candidate for SecDef must love America and believe it has a proud heritage worth defending both through force of intellect and force of arms. This doesn’t mean the candidate embraces jingoism and overlooks America’s history of mistakes and injustices, but that the candidate knows enough historical context to recognize that, warts and all, no other country has done more to advance human rights while providing unmatched opportunities to the greatest diversity and number of people. A candidate who doesn’t recognize this should not be leading the Department of Defense.

Suffice it to say, Hegseth’s writings, speeches, and interviews show that he passes this go, no-go test with flying colors.

Secondly, the candidate must be committed to defending and supporting the Constitution as seen through the context of original intent.

Once again Hegseth easily passes this go, no-go test.

Because the Defense Secretary is being nominated to help Trump realize his constitutionally informed vision of what our military should be, and what it should be doing, the nominee should have a very similar vision to that of the president, and further be willing to implement the president’ vision, even when he personally disagrees. This doesn’t mean he won’t try to change the president’s mind as makes sense, but that when cases and counter-cases are made and the president renders his decisions, it is the SecDef’s job to carry out the decisions of the only person nationally elected by the citizens of the United States to serve as Commander in Chief.

The above are the bare minimum criteria for being the SecDef, and Hegseth easily meets them. But Hegseth doesn’t just meet these minimum criteria.

Since the Secretary of Defense position was created by the National Security Act of 1947, a wide variety of nominees have been confirmed to serve in the position. While many, but not all SecDef nominees have served in the military, and a subset had combat experience, it is an even smaller subset of past SecDefs who had as much or more combat experience than Hegseth, who led many offensive and defensive combat operations during his tours of duty in Afghanistan and Iraq. During his time in the Army, Hegseth earned two Bronze Stars, two Army Commendation Medals, the National Defense Service Medal, and the expert infantryman and combat infantryman badges.

While being in the military and having actual combat experience on a modern battlefield is not necessary to the position, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Another advantage Hegseth brings to the position is that he still has many friends and acquaintances serving the military in point-of-the-spear positions, i.e., they are part of the 15 percent or less who serve in the military or are assigned to combat positions. Consequently, he is getting first-hand reports on how current policies and initiatives are impacting the people who will actually be doing the fighting. Having such connections with people who are his contemporaries is certainly a plus that gives him a fully up-to-date understanding of how things are in the Army right now.

That Trump generally agrees with Hegseth’s view is certain, or he would not be appointing someone who has been so vocal on positions sure to be attacked, including Hegseth’s DEI views and belief that putting women in combat is a terrible idea. Hegseth further believes the military’s recruiting woes and inability to get enough men to enlist is directly related to DEI and other woke policies that have caused a big decline in the military as a trusted institution.

All this means Hegseth comes into the position with a very clear vision of what needs to be done on the personnel and military culture side of things. He also no doubt has people in mind who will come alongside him to help restore the warrior culture our military needs to fight and win wars against peer competitors who have not abandoned the tried-and-true methods that produce men, and leaders of men, who can fight and win wars.

He will also need to bring in the right people to deal with the procurement side of things, but it is highly likely he already has a number of highly knowledgeable people in mind who would be eager to help him get sorely needed, long overdue reforms in place to bring back accountability to defense procurement.

Bottom line, compared to past SecDefs, Hegseth, who has undergraduate and graduate degrees from Princeton and Harvard, brings some unique experiences and a mindset to the position that seem particularly well-suited to making America’s military great again. Hence, as he is the duly elected president’s nominee, the U.S. Senate should give their advice and then confirm him.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.