“I confess, I did not know who Pete Hegseth was until about 20 minutes ago,” Smith told reporters.
“He does not seem to have much of a detailed background in [Department of Defense] policy. To the extent he’s worked on any of that stuff, it has been on veterans policy, not on DoD issues. So the lack of experience is concerning,” Smith said.
“Now I have not heard what his plans are, so we will see what his plans are,” he added. “But it was surprising and is concerning, just given that lack of experience. You know, the Pentagon, biggest bureaucracy in the world. It’s a hard thing to run, so I think it’s going to be a challenge."
In the words of Wash: Oh god, oh god, we’re all gonna die.
Yeah, but all that won’t matter. I’m sure that Trump will simply eliminate large swathes of the DoD, purely because he wants himself to be closest to the actual command structure. All that squad-level command, the “organized chaos” that gives us a lot of tactical flexibility? I’m fairly sure that’ll be gone, because Trump doesn’t trust anyone but him giving orders now. He’s deeply upset he couldn’t simply order the military into cities to break up the 2020 protests, so he wants to be the first and only important link in the command chain, with everyone below selected for loyalty, not competence.
He wants to emulate the command structure of the Russian Army - not because it’s more effective (it’s demonstrably not), but because the power structure is far more linear and top-down, and he doesn’t want any intelligent and conscientious officers or noncoms refusing orders and getting away with it, regardless of whether or not said orders are blatantly illegal.
In the words of Wash: Oh god, oh god, we’re all gonna die.
Yeah, but all that won’t matter. I’m sure that Trump will simply eliminate large swathes of the DoD, purely because he wants himself to be closest to the actual command structure. All that squad-level command, the “organized chaos” that gives us a lot of tactical flexibility? I’m fairly sure that’ll be gone, because Trump doesn’t trust anyone but him giving orders now. He’s deeply upset he couldn’t simply order the military into cities to break up the 2020 protests, so he wants to be the first and only important link in the command chain, with everyone below selected for loyalty, not competence.
Precisely this.
He wants to emulate the command structure of the Russian Army - not because it’s more effective (it’s demonstrably not), but because the power structure is far more linear and top-down, and he doesn’t want any intelligent and conscientious officers or noncoms refusing orders and getting away with it, regardless of whether or not said orders are blatantly illegal.