Hegseth’s disdain for morality distances the Pentagon from universities

Self-styled “secretary of War” Pete Hegseth reportedly believes that moral purpose is a weakness in war, which may well explain his disdainful campaign against the foremost U.S. universities.  

In a video posted last month, Hegseth announced “the cancellation of all Department of War attendance” at Harvard, as well as “institutions like Princeton, Columbia, MIT, Brown, Yale and many others” for the purported offense of pushing “a creed of globalist submission,” rather than training “lethal and effective leaders.”  

A follow up memorandum named 14 U.S. universities and eight other institutions, where Senior Service College Fellowship programs for active-duty military personnel would be ended, beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. Current students would be allowed to complete their degrees. 

There are currently only 93 students in the fellowship program, 21 of whom are at Harvard, which Hegseth considers “one of the red-hot centers of hate America activism.” Still, alarms went off across higher education. Hegseth’s intention to evaluate “all existing graduate programs for active duty service members,” threatens generations of cooperation between American universities and the military. 

Terminating the Senior Service College Fellowships is only the beginning of Hegseth’s plan to replace “woke breeding grounds of toxic indoctrination” with “the singular mission of developing the most lethal and effective leaders and warfighters the world has ever known.”  

He has an odd way of pursuing his goal. 

The Senior Service College Fellowships are limited to senior officers who, Hegseth fears, will be hopelessly corrupted by exposure to “graduate........

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