Going Backward

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Aug. 16, 2025

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth isn't making our military great again but he is making it about a century old. How? No women leaders, no men of color as leaders, no hesitancy to honor traitorous generals who took up arms against this country, no room for service members whose only offense was trying to be who they are... going backward in time and practice is a Hegseth specialty.

Who was replaced? Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Lisa Franchetti was booted by Hegseth, the first woman to head Naval Operations and the first to sit on the Joint Chiefs. Then there was Vice Admiral Shoshana Chatfield, the first woman to serve as head of the Naval War College and our U.S. representative to the NATO Military Committee, who spent half her 40-year career at sea commanding ships and strike groups. And Lt. General Jennifer Short was the Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense.

(It should be noted the first victim of this purge was Admiral Linda Fagan, the first female Commandant of the Coast Guard, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Defense. Trump fired her his first day back in office, claiming she had been too focused on DEI. He also fired General Charles Brown, the first Black Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who was too strong a believer in equality.)

There are more—including all the uniformed lawyers from the Army, Navy, and Air Force—but the above is a reasonable sample.

The so-called “new day” at the Pentagon in which they will be focused on readiness, deterrence, and lethality, included a conversation regarding military strikes against the Houthi rebels on a communication platform that was not secured and could have been, and likely was, accessed by any of our adversaries.

Hegseth has also declared he will be reinstalling statues and plaques honoring Confederate soldiers because they are an “important part of our history.” Actually, they are an ugly part of our history, traitors whose actions led to our deadliest war with some 700,000 dead from combat and disease.

First up on Hegseth’s restoration of shame? General Albert Pike to be reinstalled in Judiciary Square in Washington, D.C. Pike was an unapologetic racist and slaveholder who said, “... the white race, and that race alone, shall govern this country. It is the only one that is fit to govern, and it is the only one that shall.” What a lovely sentiment to be memorialized.

Then there is the so-called Reconciliation Monument to be reinstalled at Arlington National Cemetery at a cost of $10 million. It is especially onerous, a Confederate soldier being supported by what appear to be Black men, perhaps slaves. This insult to decency was first erected in 1914, a year that saw 55 Black men lynched, and includes a plaque in Latin that translates to, “The victorious cause was pleasing to the gods but the lost cause to Cato.”

This plays into the “lost cause” or, worse, the “noble lost cause” narrative that likes to tout the war as a righteous fight against federal government tyranny and in support of states’ rights. But there was nothing remotely noble about the Civil War, and the proof is in the secession letters and declarations of the Confederate states.

Here’s the letter from Mississippi: “Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery...”

This one is from South Carolina: “... an increasing hostility on the part of non-slaveholding states to the institution of slavery...”

Or Georgia: “...serious causes of complaint against our non-slaveholding confederate states with reference to the subject of African-slavery.”

Texas actually had it written into their constitution in 1861 there could never be any emancipation of “negro slaves.”

We haven’t erected statues to Japanese or German generals, and we should treat those involved with the Confederacy similarly.

Finally, Hegseth has decided to boot transgender service members without any evidence that they are in any way a detriment to the combat readiness of any service branch.

They have served with honor and distinction for a long time. If you don’t believe that, do your own research, but start with Kristin Beck, a 20-year Navy vet, a Navy Seal, a member of Seal Team 6, awarded the Bronze Star with Combat Distinguishing Service, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, and the Purple Heart. Or how about West Point graduate Allyson Robinson? Or Army vet Shane Ortega? He served in three hostile fire combat zones and executed over 400 combat missions.

Pete Hegseth has chosen to honor the treasonous people who took up arms against the United States while he devalues some and punishes others who have honorably served the United States. It is offensive at best, repulsive at worst.