CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Pete Hegseth’s Crusade

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.” – Sinclair Lewis

“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.”

Sinclair Lewis would have recognized Pete Hegseth immediately—a Christian nationalist whose religious beliefs, tattoos, and now his policies let everyone know he’s on a crusade to do no good. And what more perfect position from which to crusade than secretary of war. This is a man who says: “There would be no Europe and no America” if not for the Crusades—a gross distortion of history that nevertheless shapes his view of the military and US national security.

The US military has become too soft, Hegseth says. It is infested with woke culture and needs to restore a “warrior ethos.” Liberal generals have been recruiting, retaining, and promoting all the wrong people. They need to be rooted out. He has fired or forced out several senior officers, most recently the army chief of staff, and he has blocked promotions of women and Black generals. On the other hand, Hegseth has pardoned soldiers who have been convicted of violating the laws of war. Military justice is wrongheaded when it jails soldiers who are heroes, he has said.

Hegseth and the Press

Like his commander-in-chief, Hegseth despises an inquiring press that raises uncomfortable questions about his policies and tends to support liberal military leaders. The press has been under attack at the Pentagon virtually from the moment he took office. As Michael Wilner and Ana Ceballos have written in the Los Angeles Times, reporters had to sign a 21-page agreement warning them “against ‘soliciting’ information,........

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