the memo also orders a similar reduction in the National Guard and at least a 10% cut across all generals and admirals in the military.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also ordered reductions among the senior officers below them.
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I am amazed that Hegseth (and whoever is whispering persuasively into his ears as i doubt chopping excessive 4 stars is something he actually thought through on his own) is doing something that I knee-jerkedly support.
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I can see a situation, in a shrinking military, where an overload of flag rank officers could be an issue, because they are hanging on for the status, and pension.
The real question is what criteria will be used? The SecDef seems to prefer ideological purity to job performance.
Voted my proxy for Flowserve last night. Usually, any retired military gets an automatic “against” vote from me, because I know they are they to pedal influence. Flowserve does have two former military. But both of then only made it to Army Captain, and worked in the private sector for about 20 years after that, so I don’t think they can make things happen in DoD.
Steve
Substitute “racial” for “ideological” and I’ll agree with you.
Of course you have to have “ideological” too, I’ll give you that.
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According to the article, they don’t have any criteria:
Hegseth’s office was not able to clarify those issues when reached by Military.com on Monday. An official said “all we have on this is the memo for now.”
So yes, this seems to be a loyalty purge. I’ve done a bunch of military contracting, I’m in complete agreement with anyone who says the military is a giant volcano of wastefulness.
But the logic sounds pretty fishy. He’s comparing peacetime to wartime. In peacetime, you need the management team in place for when you go to war. In wartime you need to increase head count rapidly so the ratio of general officers to troops will necessarily go down.
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iirc, when the Air Force General on the JCS, who was black, was tossed, another AF General, while male, was also tossed for advocating DEI. The Commander of the Coast Guard, white, female, was tossed. iirc, another high ranking Navy officer, white, but female, was tossed.
Steve
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He can’t publicly say his motives are racist and sexist, so he invokes the thought crime of “DEI”.
Steve
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Saving money to fund the tax cut. Who needs all that brass?
I think we can all sleep well tonight knowing that this will be handled in a professional, competent, and intelligent manner so that our national security will not be compromised.
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Ah, yes, an exact description of our amazing SofD. I feel so safe and secure now.
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This right-sizing might be a good thing based on our (ahem) winning record of the last few wars.
DB2
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Sure, if it is performance based. But since they won’t say what it is based on, it is safe to assume this is a loyalty purge given Hegseth’s extreme insecurity.
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I’m not sure that getting rid of those with the most experience and wisdom is necessarily right-sizing.
And, our winning record (or lack of) is very likely a reflection of the political leadership and less so the military leadership. Let’s remind ourselves that the Generals in charge today are not the same ones that were in charge 10 years ago, and certainly not 20 years ago.
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Our political ideology was that they will ultimately come around to our way of thinking if can just keep bombing them long enough.
Seemed like a great plan, I can’t figure out why it didn’t work.