Comments on: No fat generals, says Hegseth

By: AesopFan

AesopFan — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 06:13:42 +0000

@ Richard Aubrey – “Perhaps you planned for seeing Plan B come at you. But Plan C?”

There’s where you get into the Known Unknowns, and sadly often the Unknown Unknowns.
Hard to make contingency plans for the first, almost impossible for the second, unless you are a mad genius or prophet.

https://www.theuncertaintyproject.org/tools/rumsfeld-matrix

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:12:21 +0000

Don,

You may be referring to “Neptune’s Inferno” by Hornfischer? Great book, as is his “Last Stand of The Tin Can Sailors” (Leyte Gulf)

I generally look at Monday Morning Quarterbacking skeptically in military matters. The enemy has a vote and his options may not be limited.
There are screwups and some should have been avoided. But when you do Plan A, the enemy is not required to respond as anticipated. Perhaps you planned for seeing Plan B come at you. But Plan C? Didn’t know he had the….ships…capacity….intel. Could you have known? Should you?

By: Don

Don — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 16:04:31 +0000

Geoffrey Britain on September 30, 2025 at 6:30 pm said:
In a military that promotes solely on merit, idiots would never arise to positions of command. Whereas in a woke military, by definition idiocy is the order of the day.

We have tended to have problems developing good military leadership throughout our history.

Recently read a book on the series of naval battles that occurred during the Guadalcanal campaign. We suffered a lot from poor leadership. Generally the men on the ships did a good job and often so to the ship’s captains, but higher ranks tended to fuck. up.

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 16:03:15 +0000

It has often been reported that Obama cashiered a lot of war fighting officers (and probably drove out a lot of enlisted men as well) and replaced them with his own soft, woke, squishy people, and this scheme of replacement probably continued during the Biden Administration.

I’m assuming that in addition to the few officers who have been fired, there are also a lot of officers and enlisted men who hold the same Obama type views, but who have been more canny, and much less publicly vocal about them.

So, my question is, just what percentage of the officers and their senior enlisted advisors in that audience do we think are likely to actually accept, to perform according to, and to strive to implement the mindset and priorities which Secretary of War Hegseth so very clearly delineated.

P.S. I’m also wondering just how Hegseth is going about identifying the people who need to be pushed out of his type of military?

If these Woke/DEI people don’t come to Hegseth and his staff’s attention by their public statements or actions, do fellow soldiers just point them out?

By: douglas

douglas — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 06:59:10 +0000

” For the support troops, good health and sharp minds are necessary, but not the type of fitness you would expect from a Ranger, SEAL or even an infantry dogface.” -J.J.
What happens on the flight line when during a hot turnaround, a bomb loader malfunctions. How do you get it on the rack? It’s gonna take strong support troops, that’s how. Everyone has to pull their weight.

By: douglas

douglas — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 06:54:28 +0000

“But the left always counts on the idea that you can’t turn back the clock. They believe once the Overton Window has shifted, the public accepts the new standard as the way it should be.”

Well, they believe that the arc of history bends toward them, and progress is inevitable. Of course, they are always wrong, but that never stops them.

By: richf

richf — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 21:20:49 +0000

This situation reminds me of a scene from “Blue Bloods”.
For those who are unfamiliar with the show, it’s about a family most of whose members are in law enforcement in NYC. A feature of the show was the family dinners, during which various issues would be discussed (IOW argued about).
In one episode the issue in question was a fitness test for police officers.
Danny, a detective, says something like : “You might have one officer who’s good at this thing, and other who’s good at that thing, and a third who’s good at something else. You don’t want to lose any of them because they’re a little overweight”.
His sister-in-law, a beat cop, says : “Maybe, but in a perfect world all three of them would be able to run up a flight of stairs”

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 15:36:34 +0000

I like the clarity and honesty of Hegseth’s realistic, non-sugar coated approach, when he says that the fundamental purpose of our military is not to be all touchy-feely but, rather, to apply force and violence, “ to break things and to kill people.”

By: Snow on Pine

Snow on Pine — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:28:41 +0000

Didn’t want to give anybody any ideas by writing this at the time, but what an ideal setup for a massive, crippling “decapitation attack”–when every U.S. military service’s highest ranking military leaders and their senior enlisted advisors, plus the Secretary of War, and the President are all in one location at the same time.

P.S. I thought that Secretary of War Hegseth’s speech was pretty Pattonesque, especially when compared to the rhetoric and ideas of his recent sub par predecessors.

Hegseth was crystal clear about how he wants the U.S. military to be structured, what it’s mission is, and what it’s only focus should be; war fighting, not “nation building.”

Now, let’s see how many of those attending actually take his directions to heart, and perform according to them.

They can’t say they haven’t been told.

By: miguel cervantes

miguel cervantes — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 13:28:07 +0000

https://donsurber.substack.com/p/trumps-war-and-peace