It was General John Kelly, former chief of staff to Donald Trump, who informed the media of a controversial statement made to him on 45e president. The latter would have liked to have generals like Hitler’s.
It is too early to know what the president-elect will demand of his generals during his first term, but the selection of Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense demonstrates that the man who will be sworn in on January 20 doesn’t care about appearances.
An internal threat
As soon as he was appointed by Trump, Pete Hegseth found himself in the spotlight for the wrong reasons.
Even though he served in the army and stood out on a few occasions, the man who became a host for Fox News has no qualifications to lead the most powerful army in the world.
In addition to the fact that he does not have the required skills, Hegseth has had a nasty history of sexual assault since 2017. The alleged victim and the new defense secretary reached an agreement before the trial and the amount of the sum paid by Hegseth was not disclosed.
Last controversy, and not the least, the Trump protégé attracted the attention of his superiors in 2019 because of multiple tattoos. At least two of them are sometimes appropriated by fascists: the inscription “Deus Vult” (God Wills) and the Jerusalem Cross.
Hegseth worried leaders enough that there were fears that he posed an internal threat and that he was removed from the contingent that was to provide security for Joe Biden during his swearing-in.
This is the man the president-elect considers to be the best person to lead the Pentagon. They are not yet “Hitler’s generals”, but there is plenty to worry analysts about.
A plague for the American army
The troubling thing about Hegseth’s choice is that his appointment brings to the forefront a nagging problem for the US military.
Already on January 13, 2021, I drew your attention to this issue. A third of members of the force say they have witnessed demonstrations by white supremacists or representatives of the far right.
On February 11, 2020, a Congressional document examined an alarming number of incidents linked to white supremacists within the armed forces.
Even more worrying, we would find white supremacists and extreme rightists at all levels. We are not talking about recruits here, even less about a few lost sheep.
If we listen to Donald Trump and those close to him, the army would essentially be faced with a problem of wokism.
This last expression, emptied of its meaning, is the scarecrow that we systematically wave to divert attention.
Wokism exists, but the real evil from which the American army suffers, the one which rots a significant part of its workforce, is the same which manifested itself on January 6, 2021.
