Hegseth’s hearing showed standards matter, just not for him

IN PETE Hegseth, president-elect Donald Trump has nominated a loyalist who will seek to remake the American military in the image of Maga (Make America Great Again). During a four-hour confirmation hearing, Hegseth, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran and former Fox News host, framed the current military as overrun by unqualified weaklings who have sacrificed the readiness and lethality of the world’s best fighting force on the altar of their woke agenda.

Sounding every bit like the partisan he has been on television and in several books, Hegseth and his GOP allies railed against Democratic presidents, the left-wing media, DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, critical race theory and suggested that women’s presence in combat forces might mean lowered standards. Hegseth pledged to remake the supposed substandard ranks of men and women even as he failed to demonstrate his own qualifications for the job.

“Our standards will be high, and they will be equal (not equitable, that is a very different word),” he said in his opening statement. “We need to make sure every warrior is fully qualified on their assigned weapon system, every pilot is fully qualified and current on the aircraft they are flying, and every general or flag officer is selected for leadership based purely on performance, readiness, and merit.”

Over the next hours, Democrats effectively argued that Hegseth himself couldn’t meet the kinds of standards that he will be in a position to set if he becomes Pentagon chief.

Both Hegseth and the Republican senators on the Armed Services Committee mentioned meritocracy several times during their remarks. Yet often, Republicans were at a loss to explain why someone with Hegseth’s thin resume – he mismanaged a couple of tiny non-profits prior to joining Fox – was qualified to oversee a budget of almost a trillion dollars with three million employees.

Democrats hammered this point.

“You talk about standards,” said Michigan Senator Gary Peters, after pushing Hegseth on his relevant experience to be, essentially, the chief executive officer of the military. “I don’t think there’s a board of directors in America that would hire you as CEO with the kind of experience you have on your resume.”

Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth, a double amputee and Iraq war veteran, asked: “How can we ask these warriors to train and perform the absolute highest standards when you are asking us to lower the standards to make you the secretary of defence simply because you are buddies with our president-elect?”

Republicans had no real answer. In an odd defence of Hegseth, Oklahoma Senator Markwayne Mullin seemed to argue that there weren’t really any real qualifications to serving as secretary of defence, other than being a civilian. “I googled it,” Mullin added.

Hegseth, who is a smooth communicator, evaded questions throughout the hearing and his non-answers were in fact answers. Asked by Michigan Senator Elissa Slotkin if he would “stand in the breach” if Trump gave him an illegal order, Hegseth dodged, saying instead that he didn’t believe Trump would give any illegal orders. While he pledged to not drink on the job – in response to several allegations of public drunkenness – he refused to answer whether he would resign if he drank on the job. He brushed aside questions about his leadership experience by insisting he’d been nominated to the role by, in his telling, one of the best CEOs in US history.

But the bulk of his answers came back to his insistence on instituting new rules and standards that centred on his view of meritocracy.

He claimed that the trouble with recruitment was because potential enlistees were being indoctrinated to hate their country and turned off by woke policies. In fact, the problem with recruitment is that young men increasingly can’t meet standards around criminal records, drug use, physical fitness and academic achievement.

In the closing minutes of his hearing, Hegseth was clear about what’s to come.

“Every single senior officer will be reviewed based on meritocracy, standards, lethality, and commitment to lawful orders they will be given,” Hegseth said towards the end of his hearing.

In other words, there will be a Maga loyalty test, with Hegseth and Trump as the judges.

This coming purge will be disruptive. It will undoubtedly affect readiness, cohesion and recruitment as the world grapples with several conflicts. Hegseth clearly lacks the character and leadership skills to serve as secretary of defence. But he is eminently qualified to oversee a radical reshaping of the military, rolling back generations of progress. Hegseth also made clear his unwavering admiration of Trump, his willingness to politicise the military and carry out Trump’s orders and vision for the world. And for the incoming president and his GOP allies, those are the only qualifications that matter.