Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Brig. General slams Hegseth as 'incompetent' 'This guy has NO clue'

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Brig. General slams Hegseth as 'incompetent' 'This guy has NO clue' · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth delivered a highly partisan diatribe to U.S.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: troops in uniform at what he says will be an
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: annual State of the Force address. Like his infamous speech
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: last year, the audience was subjected to a blistering speech
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: using profanity and slurs, blasting the news media, former military leaders,
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: and of course, what he called woke policies.
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: We are no longer the woke department or the weak department.
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: No more silly PowerPoint trainings or drag queen shows. No
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: more diversity quotas. No more gender pronouns. No more identity months.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: There's no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Just warriors.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: The ideological clowns are out. The patriotic cowboys are in
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: with testosterone testing on top.
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: I want to bring in MSNL Pentagon reporter Priya Sridhar,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: retired U.S. Army Brigadier General and VoteVets board member Stephen
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Anderson and Kevin Barron, president of Elevation Global Strategies, former
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: executive editor of Defense One and former vice president of
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: the Pentagon Press Association. General Anderson, is it at all
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: surprising to you, given the reception to the speech that
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Secretary Hegseth received last year, that he largely recycled his
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: greatest hits?
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: Not surprising at all, Alicia. I mean, this guy has
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: no clue. He is incompetent. He's insecure. He's incapable of
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: really running this. the largest warfighting organization in the world.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: I mean, the speech yesterday, he's conducting evidently a war
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: on the Pentagon and a war on the media. He's
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: not fighting against the Iranians. I mean, there was no
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: mention of Strait of Hormuz or Bab el-Mandeb. You know,
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: no mention really of nuclear capability and what we're going
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: to do to shut that down. No mention of Iranian
• 1:53
  Speaker 3: missiles or drones or asymmetric threats. How about the proxies,
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: the Houthis, the Iranians now? And now that we've left Iran,
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: now we've opened the door for the proxies in Iran
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: to step up. And of course, Hezbollah. I mean, bottom line,
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: we are losing this war. Our national security is weaker.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: American stock has gone down. Iran has gone up because
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: of leadership by people like Pete Hegseth.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Who needs to talk about the straight of her moves
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: when you can take aim at PowerPoints? He has made
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  Speaker 1: headlines for firing scores of top level generals and admirals,
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  Speaker 1: denying the promotion of many others in what we all
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: know is a bid to remake the top ranks of
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the military. He described yesterday exactly what it is that
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: he expects from leadership. Here that is.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: I'd like to think last year's Quantico speech was liberation
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: day for leaders, for you. to be the apolitical, hard-charging, common-sense,
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: no-nonsense constitutional leaders that you joined the military to be.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: The power is back in the hands of commanders and NCOs,
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: not lawyers and HR reps. Telling someone to get in
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: shape or shave or fix their uniform or start busting
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: their ass, that's not discrimination. That's leadership.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: Kevin, do service members see it as, quote, Liberation Day?
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: Well, it just depends on the servicemen. I always remind
• 3:17
  Speaker 4: people that the military is not a uniform block. There
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: are Republicans and Democrats and liberals and conservatives throughout. But
• 3:24
  Speaker 4: when you're in the military, you're supposed to sit there
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: on your hands and listen to the commander's speech, politely
• 3:28
  Speaker 4: applaud maybe, and take the direction and go. Look, I
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: think you said it. This was mostly a rehash of
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: what we heard last year, and I guess Hegseth's way
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: to last year announce what they were going to do
• 3:39
  Speaker 4: and today to somewhat declare a mission accomplished. But the
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: general's right that it shows– that what was important for Hegseth,
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: what he's really owned, is this culture war kind of
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: aspect and the remaking of the culture of the military.
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: It's not the defense strategy of the United States around
• 3:56
  Speaker 4: the world. He's not going to colonels and senior NCOs
• 4:00
  Speaker 4: and talking about our strategy to defend and deter in Asia,
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: to keep technologically ahead of adversaries, to figure out how
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: to win whatever that looks like, this Iran conflict, and
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: on and on and on. it's beards and it's fitness tests,
• 4:15
  Speaker 4: what he really wants to go to. And I think
• 4:18
  Speaker 4: it shows a couple of things. I've written for a
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: long time that in the military and in politics, it's
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  Speaker 4: an old trick for political leaders when they come in
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: to say, the political guys who led this building before
• 4:30
  Speaker 4: us on the other side, they did it all wrong.
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: They got everything wrong. What that actually does is signals
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: to the career workforce and the uniformed troops who are
• 4:38
  Speaker 4: in sworn service that that they did wrong, that something
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: was done wrong that needs to be fixed. And now
• 4:43
  Speaker 4: they know the answer. So, you know, Heksev could have
• 4:46
  Speaker 4: gone in and said, look, things were done in one way,
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: but we're going to do the new way. The world
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  Speaker 4: has changed. So we're going to focus like this. But instead,
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: he uses every opportunity to take a political shot at
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  Speaker 4: what's behind him. So, you know, by saying they politicize
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: the military, not us, it's an old trick to, you know,
• 5:02
  Speaker 4: set the tone for what he wants. But most of
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  Speaker 4: what I heard yesterday really was just the same kind
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  Speaker 4: of hits we hear from Heksev throughout the year.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: Priya, there was a limited amount of substance, but I
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: do want to talk to you about the new initiatives
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: that were announced that included a new headquarters focused on
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: drone warfare, a group focused on the future of warfare,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: co-led by Elon Musk. What can you tell us about
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: the more substantive changes that were announced?
• 5:26
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's right, Alicia. He did announce six policy initiatives,
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  Speaker 5: including this autonomous warfare command, which would focus on drone
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: warfighting and robotic systems. He also talked about creating what
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: he's calling Project Meridian, which is going to address the
• 5:40
  Speaker 5: next generation battlefield. So things like artificial intelligence and biotechnology
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  Speaker 5: that's going to be co-led by both Elon Musk, who,
• 5:48
  Speaker 5: by the way, was in the audience, and also Newt Gingrich.
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  Speaker 5: He also talks a little bit about United States military
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  Speaker 5: bases being energy independent. So if there is some sort
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: of attack on power grids, they can essentially sustain themselves.
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: And then he also talked about creating what's called the
• 6:03
  Speaker 5: Office of Religious Affairs, which actually had a lot of
• 6:07
  Speaker 5: sources that I spoke to, very concerned because of this
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  Speaker 5: intersection between church and state. He said he wanted this
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: office to have a direct line to, of course, what
• 6:16
  Speaker 5: he calls the Department of War and cut out all
• 6:18
  Speaker 5: the bureaucracy. But I think what was most notable for
• 6:20
  Speaker 5: me is what everyone else has discussed so far, is
• 6:23
  Speaker 5: not only did he not talk about any strategy with
• 6:25
  Speaker 5: the war in Iran, he didn't even acknowledge the 19
• 6:28
  Speaker 5: Americans who have been killed since Operation Epic Fury began.
• 6:32
  Speaker 5: back on February 28th. And that's something that a lot
• 6:34
  Speaker 5: of service members I have been speaking to were wondering,
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  Speaker 5: is he was going to sort of give a moment
• 6:40
  Speaker 5: of silence and recognize those service members' ultimate sacrifice. And
• 6:45
  Speaker 5: he didn't do any of that. He really only talked
• 6:48
  Speaker 5: about the war in Iran in the context of the
• 6:50
  Speaker 5: media and called all of the reporting that has been
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: done with the depletion of stockpiles of weapons and munitions
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: just fake news and that we're unequivocally winning this war.
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: We have destroyed the Iranian military. And then he moved
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: on to the rest.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: Well, to that point, Kevin, he called the reporting a
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: national betrayal, a treason. What does it mean for the
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: American public to have a Pentagon that is so hostile
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: to a free press?
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: Well, it means the public isn't getting the whole truth
• 7:17
  Speaker 4: that they deserve. It also means that the people in
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: that room and the room last year, the senior ranks
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: of the United States military, are receiving command guidance that
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: they should not trust the American media. They should not
• 7:29
  Speaker 4: trust their fellow countrymen. They should not live up to
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  Speaker 4: the obligation of the free press to defend the First
• 7:33
  Speaker 4: Amendment as much as they defend anything else. And it's
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  Speaker 4: it really is hard to it. It's hard to understate
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  Speaker 4: how different this is from every secretary of defense before
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: him who often would leave office with some sort of
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: praise or acknowledgement for the press corps, especially during the
• 7:50
  Speaker 4: war years, like when I served the press corps that
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: traveled into into danger zones or around the world on
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: an extensive, you know, on extensive kinds of duty to
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: cover the military and to honestly tell that story. In fact,
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: generals are trained in how to deal with the military specifically.
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: So that just goes to it. I will say one
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: last thing with what Priya mentioned, those different bullet points,
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: the energy efficiency, the new autonomous, the focus on autonomous warfare,
• 8:16
  Speaker 4: These are not new. These are things that have been
• 8:18
  Speaker 4: there forever, but they may be giving new attention. The
• 8:21
  Speaker 4: Pentagon's leadership on autonomous warfare is unquestioned. And in fact,
• 8:26
  Speaker 4: there's been a great deal of work done in this
• 8:28
  Speaker 4: administration to speed up new technologies getting into the Pentagon.
• 8:33
  Speaker 4: But energy efficiency for the military has been a topic
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  Speaker 4: literally going back to those days to the war so
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: that you don't have to truck gas all the way
• 8:43
  Speaker 4: into war zones if you have things that are maybe
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: solar powered or any other kind of power. That goes
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: completely against the rest of this administration's energy policies that
• 8:51
  Speaker 4: have undercut that development or even penalized people for working
• 8:55
  Speaker 4: in those fields. And he doesn't square that circle. He
• 8:58
  Speaker 4: just declares we're going to be energy independent. I thought
• 9:00
  Speaker 4: that just was one example of how The right hand
• 9:02
  Speaker 4: isn't necessarily talking to the left. And what the military
• 9:05
  Speaker 4: really wants and needs is not always something that's politically
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  Speaker 4: good or bad. The military signs off on it. Things
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  Speaker 4: like diversity, things like energy, renewable energy in the future
• 9:15
  Speaker 4: and now. Those are things the military wants that are
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: not thrust on them by political opponents, despite how the
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: Pentagon tries to characterize it. They want those things, too.
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: They need them.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: General Anderson, I just want to read you real quick
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: this part of the president's interview with Time magazine. He
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: he said, how can the question was, how can the
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: president of peace be calling for the annihilation of an
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: entire people? And then the president responded, because by annihilating Iran,
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  Speaker 1: we've created peace in the world with Iran. I don't
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  Speaker 1: think you could ever with Iran. I don't think you
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: could ever have peace. Sometimes the syntax really gets me.
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: What do you make of that from the president, General Anderson?
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  Speaker 3: Well, just another example of his incredible arrogance and ignorance.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, there's absolutely no way that he's going to
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  Speaker 3: be able to annihilate the Iranian people. I mean, you know,
• 10:00
  Speaker 3: they've been telling us since 1979, their people, that we
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: are the great state. Now we're acting like it. We
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: have strengthened their hand, the IRGC. We have made them
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: stronger and better. Their stock has gone up. Ours has
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: gone down. We have no allies. The GCC has been...
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: We've got 15 bases in the GCC region that we
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: might not ever be able to occupy again. This is
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: the greatest geopolitical disaster in American history, and we have
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: a Secretary of Defense that's more concerned about weirdos and
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: beardos and fat generals.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Or just click below.
• 10:36
  Speaker 5: Thanks.