Looney Platoons

“There is a certain kind of Army officer who, after the excitement of company command, finds his career stalled, and who perhaps leaves the service as a major in the National Guard filled with bitterness and resentment. He may then dream of one day being in a position to make all the superior officers who failed to appreciate his leadership qualities, his insight, his sheer fitness stand to attention and hear him lay down the law about what it is to be an officer, and threaten to fire those who do not meet *his* standards. In this respect, and this respect only, on that stage Pete Hegseth was living the dream. In all other respects, however, he was ridiculous.” Eliot A. Cohen in The Atlantic: Pete Hegseth Is Living the Dream.

+ The Hegseth speech to the gathering of military commanders was bad. The president’s was unhinged. Tom Nichols: The Commander in Chief Is Not Okay. “It’s one thing to serve it up to an adoring MAGA crowd: They know that most of it is nonsense and only some of it is real. They find it entertaining, and they can take or leave as much of Trump’s rhetorical junk-food buffet as they would like. It is another thing entirely to aim this kind of sludge at military officers, who are trained and acculturated to treat every word from the president with respect, and to regard his thoughts as policy.”

+ The speeches were laughable. What’s happening inside the Dept is no laughing matter. WaPo (Gift Article): Pentagon plans widespread random polygraphs, NDAs to stanch leaks. (A Pentagon determined to go to war with the American people is now even declaring war on itself.)