We’ll have to see the repercussions of admirals with over 35 years of service, now commanding aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, destroyers, and cruisers, ending their careers by destroying small civilian vessels and murdering peaceful fishermen.
We’ll have to see the repercussions of admirals with over 35 years of service, now commanding aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, destroyers, and cruisers, ending their careers by destroying small civilian vessels and murdering peaceful fishermen.
By Sergio Rodríguez Gelfenstein
When Donald Trump was outlining his cabinet after being elected and before taking office, he made one decision: the neoconservatives who had caused him so many problems in his first administration would not have a place this time. Thus, he left out, among others, Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, Nikki Haley, John Bolton, and Elliott Abrams, who had held high-ranking positions during his previous administration.
But something went wrong. After the last Senate election, the upper house was composed of 53 Republican senators, 45 Democrats, and 2 independents who usually vote with the Democrats. Among the 53 elected Republicans, four of them—Rick Scott and Ashley Moody, both members of the Florida mafia; Bernie Moreno, of Colombian descent, senator for Ohio; and Ted Cruz, of Cuban descent, senator for Texas—later joined by Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are ideologically aligned with the far-right fascist wing grouped in the neoconservative sector that is part of the current US administration.
Although they are a minority, they had enough votes to sway the Senate. They made it clear to Trump that he needed them to pass his bills, so he reluctantly agreed to their demands… and they asked for the State Department, where they placed one of their own: Marco Rubio. From that moment on, Trump has been under the thumb of this group. Many decisions stem from this coercion exerted by the neoconservative wing of his administration. And apparently, he can do nothing because thanks to them, not only was his cabinet approved, but also the budget and the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA), the so-called “most beautiful law in the world,” a folly the senators passed to appease the president.
Thus, Trump managed to get his cabinet nominees approved. However, the vote to choose the head of what was then the Department of Defense, now the Department of War, resulted in a tie that had to be broken by the vote of Vice President JD Vance.
Thus, Peter Brian Hegseth, also known as Pete, assumed the nation’s highest military command despite the opposition of half the senators, including three Republicans. The arguments against him focused on his lack of experience, but also on rape allegations made by a woman in court in 2017, which were apparently “resolved” after a payment in exchange for silence.
Hegseth, an obscure character born 45 years ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota and whose previous “experience” was limited to being a television presenter characterized by his ultra-retrograde and conservative opinions, most notably his open and pronounced homophobia, which stemmed from the belief that this sexual orientation was an expression alien to Western civilization. Hegseth declared that “the homosexual lifestyle is abnormal and immoral.”
Furthermore, his character is readily apparent from his tattoo of the “Jerusalem Cross,” a symbol of the Crusaders and a manifestation of Christian extremism. Another of his tattoos includes the words “Deus Vult,” which in Latin means “God wants it,” a war cry during the Crusades later adopted by white supremacists.
Hegseth has written four books. In the first, he defends the societies of the Southern states that, before the Civil War, had established slavery as the foundation of their economy. He also argues that “women should never have been granted the right to vote.” In his second book, “American Crusade, ” published in 2020, he wrote: “Just as the Christian crusaders repelled the Muslim hordes in the 12th century, American crusaders must show the same courage against today’s Islamists.”
Trump considered his brief stint in the U.S. Army National Guard sufficient for his appointment as Secretary of Defense, disregarding the fact that he only rose to the rank of captain without having completed any officer training courses, much less one on strategic command or staff operations. What must generals and admirals with 35 or more years of service think about being commanded by a captain? Someone might argue that high-level expertise isn’t only acquired in the Armed Forces, and that’s true, but the captain in question also lacks any political experience: he failed as a Senate candidate for his home state, which forced him to work in television as a contributor to [a specific program/program/etc.]. Fox News, where you don’t need much training to get a job.
Upon assuming his new post, quickly revealing his inexperience for such a high-level responsibility, and in collusion with Marco Rubio, he has steered his administration in two directions. On the one hand, he has been pushing for a strategic reorientation of his country’s military doctrine, shifting its priorities from countering China and Russia —as the country’s top military brass have repeatedly stated in their appearances before various congressional committees—toward defense against internal threats and the situation in the Western Hemisphere. According to an expert consulted by the news site Politico, this shift “does not appear to be at all aligned with President Trump’s aggressive stance toward China.”
The second orientation stemming from the previous one is that the emphasis of military doctrine should be directed towards protecting the borders of the United States threatened by drug trafficking and migration, including in this provision the fight against these “enemies” internally in the country.
A growing number of influential voices in the United States are warning about the risks of implementing this doctrine. Journalist Tucker Carlson warned that, “in the future, the United States could face a civil war.” His argument is based on the protests against the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the riots of the Antifa movement, designated a “terrorist organization” by the Trump administration. Hegseth and Rubio want to involve the U.S. Armed Forces in support of Trump and the Republicans in this potential conflict. This situation is also reflected in the increasing resistance of governors to accepting a military presence in their states without their authorization.
Another facet of Hegseth’s management is his clear intention to “cleanse” the Pentagon of high-ranking officers “linked to the Democratic Party” or who have embraced the inclusive practices adopted during the Biden administration. In this context, the Secretary of War (he changed the name of this government agency, formerly the Department of Defense) has dismissed or removed from their posts at least two dozen high-ranking military officers in the last ten months. Likewise, around twenty generals and admirals have submitted their retirement applications before completing their legal term of service, including Admiral Alvin Hosley, head of U.S. Southern Command.
Many of these admirals and generals were dismissed with little explanation, even contradicting the advice of senior officers who fought alongside them, according to a complaint filed by some of their colleagues. According to their statements, these actions have created a climate of “anxiety and distrust,” forcing senior officers to take sides and, at times, pitting them against each other.
At the same time, they reveal that the Pentagon chief has delayed or canceled the promotions of at least four senior officers because they previously worked for retired General Mark Milley, who served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff until 2023.
In one of the most high-profile changes, Trump appointed a new deputy chief of staff to replace General James Mingus, who served in the position for less than two years. The president nominated Lieutenant General Christopher LaNeve for the post. It is no surprise that LaNeve currently serves as an advisor to Secretary Hegseth, in his capacity as Senior Military Assistant to the Secretary, making him one of the Secretary’s closest military advisors.
This was the context for Hegseth to gather – for the first time since World War II – more than 800 generals and admirals at the Marine base in Quantico, Virginia, about 30 km from Washington, on Tuesday, September 30.
What was unusual about the meeting was not only the convening itself, but also its purpose. One might assume it was to discuss strategic issues related to the global political and military situation, but that wasn’t the case. Despite Trump addressing the officers before Hegseth spoke, describing it as a “very nice meeting where we will discuss our excellent results in the military field, our excellent form [and] many positive things,” the reality was quite different.
The atmosphere at the meeting was far from ideal. Many generals were wary of the security risks involved in gathering such a large number of officers in one place when a videoconference using highly secure internal software could have sufficed, thus avoiding the need for extensive logistical planning and travel. This approach also compromised the secrecy that such a meeting should have.
In his speech, Hegseth railed against the “woke” ideology that had developed within the military under previous administrations. Among the measures adopted by the new War Department, Hegseth stated that overweight, bearded, and long-haired soldiers would not be permitted, also targeting “superficial individual expressions.” He similarly attacked women, declaring them unfit for combat, and announced the return of “hardliners ” who had allegedly deserted the military under the previous “woke department.” He promised to reform the methods for investigating complaints of harassment and intimidation, declaring “the end of men in dresses,” and reforming equity, diversity, and inclusion policies, promising a new army modeled after the MAGA administration.
Before Hegseth’s intervention, Trump had declared that the country’s major urban centers were “very dangerous places [so] we will put them in order one by one […] It will be an important task for some of the people present in this room […] It is an internal war,” he concluded.
The meeting will not be remembered for its content but for the stunned faces of generals and admirals as they listened to the speeches of Trump and Hegseth and their diatribe about fatness, beards, homosexuality in the armed forces and the need to limit the presence of women within them.
Another facet of Hegseth’s management is manifested in the unprecedented attacks against the media, targeting both individual reporters and the industry as a whole. It is noted that since his arrival at the Pentagon, some media outlets have been evicted from shared workspaces. Furthermore, journalists’ access to Pentagon corridors has been restricted, and the press credentials of some correspondents have been revoked.
Among the journalists harshly attacked by Hegseth are Jennifer Griffin, a Fox News reporter with extensive experience covering Pentagon policy, who has been the target of the Secretary’s scathing remarks on numerous occasions. Likewise, Courtney Kube, NBC News’ Pentagon correspondent, wrote articles about Hegseth that—according to the New York Times—”included unsavory information about his past, including testimony from a family member about Hegseth’s abusive behavior toward his second wife. This information came to light as the Senate was considering his nomination for Secretary of Defense. Shortly after taking office, Hegseth ordered the reporter removed from the Pentagon, an order that went unfulfilled due to a lack of legal basis.”
In his most recent actions, Hegseth allegedly ordered the murder of two fishermen who survived an attack after being falsely accused of drug trafficking. Democratic Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut called the attacks “unlawful killings” and “disturbing,” and stated that Congress is receiving little information from the Trump administration. Himes, the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, acknowledged but dismissed a White House memo about the attacks. He stated, “Based on what I know now and on reading that memo, [I can say that] these are unlawful killings,” adding, “They are unlawful killings because the idea that the United States—and this is what the administration says is its justification—would be involved in an armed conflict with any Venezuelan drug trafficker is absurd. It would not hold up in any court of law.”
In this situation, a veritable internal war has erupted, with talk of a loss of “confidence” in Hegseth stemming from a perceived lack of skills in handling high-level negotiations, according to a Politico article published on November 21, citing sources familiar with the matter. This has led to an escalation of rhetorical confrontation within MAGA. One of its most prominent representatives, the far-right activist Laura Loomer, has accused Driscoll of being linked to the Democratic Party and of “plotting a coup against Hegseth.”
According to Politico, the recent visit to Kyiv by senior Pentagon officials, led by US Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, illustrates Hegseth’s loss of credibility and prominence.
No one knows if Hegseth will be able to cope with the intense pressure he is under. A few weeks ago, a source close to the Pentagon stated that the US Secretary of War was so nervous he seemed “about to explode.” Hegseth, surrounded by one of the largest and most powerful security details in the world, has been particularly concerned about his safety following the assassination of far-right activist Charlie Kirk at a public event.
According to an article published by the British website Daily Mail on September 29, citing sources close to the situation, Hegseth’s fear “is reflected in erratic behavior toward his staff.” Two anonymous sources with inside information from the Pentagon told the publication that in recent weeks Hegseth has launched into tirades, become enraged with his subordinates, and is obsessed with security matters. They stated: “He has a manic quality. Or, rather, an even more manic quality, which is saying something,” one source said, describing Hegseth as visibly distracted and restless, even getting up and pacing during meetings.
Now, like the true coward he is, he has not taken responsibility for the “kill them all” order that led to the murder of the fishermen in the Caribbean, forcing Admiral Frank M. Bradley, commander of the United States Special Operations Command, to bear all the repercussions for issuing that order. According to the Washington Post report: “Bradley, then commander of the Joint Special Operations Command, oversaw an attack in the Caribbean on September 2, 2025, ordered by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, against a vessel suspected of drug trafficking. The Post reported that Bradley ordered a second attack after identifying two survivors in a drone transmission, following Hegseth’s directive to leave no survivors.”
We’ll have to see the repercussions of admirals with over 35 years of service, now commanding aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, destroyers, and cruisers, ending their careers by destroying small civilian vessels and murdering peaceful fishermen. This will also help explain the daily increase in suicides, drug addiction, and post-war trauma within the U.S. armed forces. For this to happen, they also need to keep the drug trade, which they claim to be fighting so hard against, functioning. It’s part of the functional framework of that decadent society.