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Pete Hegseth Is Scapegoating Career Soldiers for His Own Failures

Trapped in a disastrous war, the defense secretary is intensifying a purge of the military.

Two prominent government officials were fired on Thursday, a civilian and a military commander. Donald Trump removed Attorney General Pam Bondi, long the subject of presidential displeasure because of her politically maladroit handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case (which has only served to embarrass the president) and her failure (despite the president’s wishes and her own servility) to fully weaponize the Department of Justice against Trump’s partisan enemies. The Bondi firing is symptomatic of Trump’s increasing frustration at his inability to implement his agenda. It follows the ouster of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last month, and Trump may not be done wielding the axe. Politico reports that Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer might also be on the chopping block, with Trump eager to find replacements while the GOP still controls the Senate.

But the political purge of Trump’s cabinet is less significant than what is happening in the Pentagon, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is intensifying his campaign to get rid of officers who disagree with him. As Axios reported in August, “Decades of experience have been wiped from the highest levels of the U.S. military, the result of retirements and removals in the first year of the second Trump administration.” And on Thursday, Hegseth added to this brain drain, firing three generals, including Gen. Randy George, the top-ranking general in the Army. The news site Military.com called it “one of the most significant wartime leadership shakeups during active U.S. combat operations in recent years.”

These moves take place against the backdrop of a flailing military campaign in Iran. Both Trump and Hegseth appeared to think the war would be a cakewalk that would take just a few days to wrap up. In fact, the war has lasted more than a month, and in a speech on Wednesday night that........

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