There have been so many instances where this man has denied promotions to very high ranking and very accomplished women and men of color. He seems to be on a crusade to rid the Armed Forces of high-ranking women and black officers in particular.

“Hegseth, in my opinion, is the kind of white guy who has a small personality but wants to seem big, strong, and tough,” Marks said. “People like that can be very dangerous. That’s evident in some of the actions they’ve taken. I never thought that I would see the National Guard being deployed outside of a national disaster or emergency.”

https://share.google/m1kW0pruGRwAr1bUe

Hegseth recently shifted his views on women serving in combat. In November, he said he opposed women in combat, and used gender stereotypes to make his case. He stated, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated.” But after meeting with several women senators in December, he said “we support all women in our military today, . . . combat included.”

https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/who-is-pete-hegseth

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals, a highly unusual move that has prompted some senior military officials to question whether the officers are being singled out because of their race or gender.

Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials said.

Mr. Hegseth had been pressing senior Army leaders, including Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, for months to remove the officers’ names, military officials said. But Mr. Driscoll, citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused.

Earlier this month, Mr. Hegseth broke the logjam by unilaterally striking the officers’ names from the list, though it is not clear he has the legal authority to do so. The list is currently being reviewed by the White House, which is expected to send it to the Senate for final approval.

The frustrations with Mr. Hegseth’s approach came to a boil last summer during a heated exchange between Ricky Buria, Mr. Hegseth’s chief of staff, and Mr. Driscoll about a separate promotion. Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, the officials said.

Today, about 43 percent of the 1.3 million troops on active duty are people of color. But those leading the military are overwhelmingly white and male. Mr. Austin pressed promotion boards to look deeper into the ranks to ensure qualified women and minorities were considered for senior positions.

Senior military officials said they could not recall any previous instance of a defense secretary seeking to remove individual officers from a military board’s list.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/us/hegseth-promotion-list.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

There have been so many instances where this man has denied promotions to very high ranking and very accomplished women and men of color. He seems to be on a crusade to rid the Armed Forces of high-ranking women and black officers in particular.

Source: "trust muh feelZ bro"

The military isn't a social justice experiment; qualified people of all stripes advance, but -- unlike according to progressive leftist rot -- being "women" and "black" and "men of color" is not a qualification. I am thankful for Hegseth and people like him who help enforce the de-wokification of the USA's armed forces.

7 minutes ago, spidermike007 said:

There have been so many instances where this man has denied promotions to very high ranking and very accomplished women and men of color. He seems to be on a crusade to rid the Armed Forces of high-ranking women and black officers in particular.

“Hegseth, in my opinion, is the kind of white guy who has a small personality but wants to seem big, strong, and tough,” Marks said. “People like that can be very dangerous. That’s evident in some of the actions they’ve taken. I never thought that I would see the National Guard being deployed outside of a national disaster or emergency.”

https://share.google/m1kW0pruGRwAr1bUe

Hegseth recently shifted his views on women serving in combat. In November, he said he opposed women in combat, and used gender stereotypes to make his case. He stated, “I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated.” But after meeting with several women senators in December, he said “we support all women in our military today, . . . combat included.”

https://www.aclu.org/news/civil-liberties/who-is-pete-hegseth

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is blocking the promotion of four Army officers to be one-star generals, a highly unusual move that has prompted some senior military officials to question whether the officers are being singled out because of their race or gender.

Two of the officers targeted by Mr. Hegseth are Black and two are women on a promotion list that consists of about three dozen officers, most of whom are white men, senior military officials said.

Mr. Hegseth had been pressing senior Army leaders, including Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll, for months to remove the officers’ names, military officials said. But Mr. Driscoll, citing the officers’ decades-long records of exemplary service, had repeatedly refused.

Earlier this month, Mr. Hegseth broke the logjam by unilaterally striking the officers’ names from the list, though it is not clear he has the legal authority to do so. The list is currently being reviewed by the White House, which is expected to send it to the Senate for final approval.

The frustrations with Mr. Hegseth’s approach came to a boil last summer during a heated exchange between Ricky Buria, Mr. Hegseth’s chief of staff, and Mr. Driscoll about a separate promotion. Mr. Buria told Mr. Driscoll that President Trump would not want to stand next to a Black female officer at military events, the officials said.

Today, about 43 percent of the 1.3 million troops on active duty are people of color. But those leading the military are overwhelmingly white and male. Mr. Austin pressed promotion boards to look deeper into the ranks to ensure qualified women and minorities were considered for senior positions.

Senior military officials said they could not recall any previous instance of a defense secretary seeking to remove individual officers from a military board’s list.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/27/us/hegseth-promotion-list.html?smid=nytcore-android-share

Is this the American version of a Hakenkreuz?

Maybe Mr. Hegseth is of the opinion that men should not be regarded as retarded females. And that if you want excrement to happen with no regard to life or limb, that a person with a swinging pair might have a slight advantage on the battlefield.

I mean, no disrespect to Joan-of Ark or Mother Therese and their ilk, but generally speaking it has traditionally been a man's role to defend King (and woman) and country. I invite all beta males with indecisive pronouns and low testosterone counts to prove me wrong.

5 minutes ago, still kicking said:

Is this the American version of a Hakenkreuz?

No, it isnt, and I bet you havent said anything about Platners Totenkopf tattoo have ya 555555

Best compliment you can give Hegseth is that a topic like this exissts 55555

What a bassturd, eh? A decorated combat veteran leading the Armed Forces, eh?

Never mind that under Pete, the military EXCEEDED its recruitment goals in 2025, and is on target to do the same this year. Dont believe that ever happened under the previous President. Dude must be doing something right, methinks.

2 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

What a bassturd, eh? A decorated combat veteran leading the Armed Forces, eh?

You think being a combat veteran is enough of a qualification to run a huge organization like the Defense Dept. Just maybe, it might help to have a bit of executive experience? Laughable.

2 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

Never mind that under Pete, the military EXCEEDED its recruitment goals in 2025, and is on target to do the same this year. Dont believe that ever happened under the previous President.

Whether you believe it or not, you got it wrong.

Military Met 2024 Recruit Contracting Goals, Plans for Repeat

https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/article/4151948/military-met-2024-recruit-contracting-goals-plans-for-repeat/#:~:text=Eifler%20said%20the%20Army%20exceeded,Hearing

I'm not going to deny the Trump adminstration any credit. After all, the strongest correlation between Defense recruitment and hiring is the strength of the job market. So, recruitment should enjoy a big boost thanks to the current weakness in that measure of the economy.

11 minutes ago, Alan Zweibel said:

You think being a combat veteran is enough of a qualification to run a huge organization like the Defense Dept. Just maybe, it might help to have a bit of executive experience? Laughable.

Whether you believe it or not, you got it wrong.

Military Met 2024 Recruit Contracting Goals, Plans for Repeat

https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/article/4151948/military-met-2024-recruit-contracting-goals-plans-for-repeat/#:~:text=Eifler%20said%20the%20Army%20exceeded,Hearing

I'm not going to deny the Trump adminstration any credit. After all, the strongest correlation between Defense recruitment and hiring is the strength of the job market. So, recruitment should enjoy a big boost thanks to the current weakness in that measure of the economy.

Being a combat vet is not the only qualifier to run the DoD, but it helps. Helps a lot. Knowing first-hand what the results of decisions on procurement and budgeting are makes a big difference.

And yes, 2024 was in fact the first time recruiting goals were met. The year Trump was elected.

1 minute ago, Hanaguma said:

Being a combat vet is not the only qualifier to run the DoD, but it helps. Helps a lot. Knowing first-hand what the results of decisions on procurement and budgeting are makes a big difference.

And yes, 2024 was in fact the first time recruiting goals were met. The year Trump was elected.

Really? Makes a big difference? Being a tiny cog in one small part of the machine makes a big difference? How big a difference compared to actual executive experience?

1 minute ago, Hanaguma said:

And yes, 2024 was in fact the first time recruiting goals were met. The year Trump was elected.

It wasn't only the year that Trump got elected, Oppenheimer won the Academy Award for best picture. And that's just as relevant.

3 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

Being a combat vet is not the only qualifier to run the DoD, but it helps. Helps a lot. Knowing first-hand what the results of decisions on procurement and budgeting are makes a big difference.

And yes, 2024 was in fact the first time recruiting goals were met. The year Trump was elected.

Pete Hegseth, who now serves as Secretary of Defense in the second Trump administration, is often presented as a “combat veteran” and military expert. He is both — but only in the most generous, shallow sense.

Hegseth served in the Army National Guard after graduating from Princeton, and he did deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was awarded a Bronze Star and a Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB), having served in civil-affairs operations and as an adviser in Afghanistan.

But let’s be clear: Hegseth was not a front-line leader of combat troops under sustained fire. He did not command an infantry company in protracted combat or lead exhausted soldiers through night patrols and firefights.

He served honorably — but his service is not what he markets. What he sells is the image of the modern American warrior as loud, aggressive, and built for Instagram, not endurance or humility. It’s a dangerous distortion. And it shows.

Any real combat veteran knows that physical size does not determine effectiveness under fire. Stamina, discipline, intelligence, composure, and unit loyalty matter far more than how many pounds a soldier can bench press. A 120-pound Vietnamese rifleman who knew the terrain and fought with purpose could be worth more in combat than a 200-pounder who had to lug a lot of unnecessary muscle mass through flooded paddies and sucking mud.

I don’t say this lightly, but a soldier like Pete Hegseth — someone who prioritizes optics over substance, and showmanship over steadiness — would have had a hard time serving under me in Vietnam. I didn’t have the luxury of indulging ego.

His glorification of hyper-masculinity and disdain for inclusion sends a chilling message: that strength matters more than ability, image matters more than dependability, and ideology matters more than truth.

This kind of thinking doesn’t just exclude many qualified service members — it gets people killed.

https://share.google/y1pCrXVWUsFZZbctj

If anyone needs further evidence of how clueless Hegseth is, he led a particularly vicious prayer for victory against Iran. Praying for victory in war is a dubious practice but it's one of long standing among US govt official. But it was always God who was invoked. What distinguished Hegseth's prayer is that he invoked Jesus' assistance. Combine that with the fact that this is a guy tattooed with a Crusader symbol, and it's not difficult to see how this can be played in the Muslim world. Christians against Muslims. Apparently, the clown just can't help himself.

1 hour ago, spidermike007 said:

Pete Hegseth, who now serves as Secretary of Defense in the second Trump administration, is often presented as a “combat veteran” and military expert. He is both — but only in the most generous, shallow sense.

Hegseth served in the Army National Guard after graduating from Princeton, and he did deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was awarded a Bronze Star and a Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB), having served in civil-affairs operations and as an adviser in Afghanistan.

But let’s be clear: Hegseth was not a front-line leader of combat troops under sustained fire. He did not command an infantry company in protracted combat or lead exhausted soldiers through night patrols and firefights.

He served honorably — but his service is not what he markets. What he sells is the image of the modern American warrior as loud, aggressive, and built for Instagram, not endurance or humility. It’s a dangerous distortion. And it shows.

Any real combat veteran knows that physical size does not determine effectiveness under fire. Stamina, discipline, intelligence, composure, and unit loyalty matter far more than how many pounds a soldier can bench press. A 120-pound Vietnamese rifleman who knew the terrain and fought with purpose could be worth more in combat than a 200-pounder who had to lug a lot of unnecessary muscle mass through flooded paddies and sucking mud.

I don’t say this lightly, but a soldier like Pete Hegseth — someone who prioritizes optics over substance, and showmanship over steadiness — would have had a hard time serving under me in Vietnam. I didn’t have the luxury of indulging ego.

His glorification of hyper-masculinity and disdain for inclusion sends a chilling message: that strength matters more than ability, image matters more than dependability, and ideology matters more than truth.

This kind of thinking doesn’t just exclude many qualified service members — it gets people killed.

https://share.google/y1pCrXVWUsFZZbctj

As I recall, Pete was an infantry platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division, actually volunteered to be one. Also got the Combat Infantryman's Badge as well as the Bronze Star, which is awarded for sustained duty in a combat environment. Say what you like, he has been there and done that. Not an armchair warrior at all.

False...he will promote folks based on their merit and not DEI. I am in full support of his policies.

We have too many women in roles that should be for men only.

Keep going Pete!

15 minutes ago, Hanaguma said:

As I recall, Pete was an infantry platoon leader in the 101st Airborne Division, actually volunteered to be one. Also got the Combat Infantryman's Badge as well as the Bronze Star, which is awarded for sustained duty in a combat environment. Say what you like, he has been there and done that. Not an armchair warrior at all.

Yes, he was a true fighter and not afraid to fight when deployed.

Hegseth is both racist and misogynistic...and I'd be surprised if his IQ was over 100. And this public display of rejecting all international rules of behavior that were established after the horror of World War 2? This "We Don't Have Any Rules - Maximum Lethality" like bombing little children in schools? Yeah - he's racist and misogynistic - and a War Criminal.

1 hour ago, Alan Zweibel said:

If anyone needs further evidence of how clueless Hegseth is, he led a particularly vicious prayer for victory against Iran. Praying for victory in war is a dubious practice but it's one of long standing among US govt official. But it was always God who was invoked. What distinguished Hegseth's prayer is that he invoked Jesus' assistance. Combine that with the fact that this is a guy tattooed with a Crusader symbol, and it's not difficult to see how this can be played in the Muslim world. Christians against Muslims. Apparently, the clown just can't help himself.

I imagine that Hegseth thinks Mark Twain's The War Prayer is a template and not satire.

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle-be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it-for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts.
Amen."

2 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

Pete Hegseth, who now serves as Secretary of Defense in the second Trump administration, is often presented as a “combat veteran” and military expert. He is both — but only in the most generous, shallow sense.

Hegseth served in the Army National Guard after graduating from Princeton, and he did deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan. He was awarded a Bronze Star and a Combat Infantryman Badge (CIB), having served in civil-affairs operations and as an adviser in Afghanistan.

But let’s be clear: Hegseth was not a front-line leader of combat troops under sustained fire. He did not command an infantry company in protracted combat or lead exhausted soldiers through night patrols and firefights.

He served honorably — but his service is not what he markets. What he sells is the image of the modern American warrior as loud, aggressive, and built for Instagram, not endurance or humility. It’s a dangerous distortion. And it shows.

Any real combat veteran knows that physical size does not determine effectiveness under fire. Stamina, discipline, intelligence, composure, and unit loyalty matter far more than how many pounds a soldier can bench press. A 120-pound Vietnamese rifleman who knew the terrain and fought with purpose could be worth more in combat than a 200-pounder who had to lug a lot of unnecessary muscle mass through flooded paddies and sucking mud.

I don’t say this lightly, but a soldier like Pete Hegseth — someone who prioritizes optics over substance, and showmanship over steadiness — would have had a hard time serving under me in Vietnam. I didn’t have the luxury of indulging ego.

His glorification of hyper-masculinity and disdain for inclusion sends a chilling message: that strength matters more than ability, image matters more than dependability, and ideology matters more than truth.

This kind of thinking doesn’t just exclude many qualified service members — it gets people killed.

https://share.google/y1pCrXVWUsFZZbctj

You served in Vietnam, the world has moved on and is a different place. War is different

He doesn't need to have done any of those things, he only has to understand how and why it works.
Appears that he does that well

Like him or not, he's a good fit and good for morale.

5 minutes ago, Slowhand225 said:

You served in Vietnam, the world has moved on and is a different place. War is different

He doesn't need to have done any of those things, he only has to understand how and why it works.
Appears that he does that well

Like him or not, he's a good fit and good for morale.

Good for morale? Not from the military members I have spoken to.

Just now, Hawaiian said:

Good for morale? Not from the military members I have spoken to.

They were all in dresses huh ?

5 minutes ago, Slowhand225 said:

They were all in dresses huh ?

No, I personally don't know any women in uniform.

1 hour ago, Slowhand225 said:

They were all in dresses huh ?

This look like your way of acknowledging that he's not been good for the morale of women serving in the armed forces. What do you the effect of his actions has been on black men serving in the military?

2 hours ago, connda said:

Hegseth is both racist and misogynistic...and I'd be surprised if his IQ was over 100. And this public display of rejecting all international rules of behavior that were established after the horror of World War 2? This "We Don't Have Any Rules - Maximum Lethality" like bombing little children in schools? Yeah - he's racist and misogynistic - and a War Criminal.

If his IQ was around 100, he would out class Trump by at least 10 points.

1 hour ago, Slowhand225 said:

You served in Vietnam, the world has moved on and is a different place. War is different

He doesn't need to have done any of those things, he only has to understand how and why it works.
Appears that he does that well

Like him or not, he's a good fit and good for morale.

Ha! How many active soldiers have you spoken to lately? How about high ranking officers? Do you think there was a reason why very few of them stood for Trump when he made that ridiculous speech? Do you have any idea the degree to which Little Pete is despised and disrespected within the military ranks?

2 hours ago, Taboo2 said:

Yes, he was a true fighter and not afraid to fight when deployed.

Also, a true defender of psychopaths.