A Deeply Fractured US

[Jarnhamar]

You mean focus on combat effectiveness and fitness? Choose the best PERSON for job without lowering the standards for DEI reasons? Yeah, horrible, horrible.

I'd get charged in Canada for saying so but women are physically weaker then men and have a more difficult time doing combat armsy stuff than men. In some ways it does make sense to have 1 standard for fitness but in doing so it's going to severely impact numbers and other important aspects women can bring to combat arms (e.g interacting with locals).

Kudos to the folks for staying stoic to 2 hours.

I would expect this wouldn't be a difficult task or noteworthy for generals.

 

[QV]

If that whole debacle was limited to just that you would have a point.

After having skimmed through the memos here: https://media.defense.gov/2025/Sep/30/2003812317/-1/-1/1/SECRETARY-OF-WAR-ANNOUNCED-MEMORANDUMS.PDF

I don't really see any outlandish things. What do you see as the debacle not limited to a focus on warfighting?

 

[rmc_wannabe]

You mean focus on combat effectiveness and fitness? Choose the best PERSON for job without lowering the standards for DEI reasons? Yeah, horrible, horrible.

More like weaken policies created specifically due to that culture shifting event that happened after the 1950s... Civil Rights something or other... you know? That Act which employers including the Federal Government and Defence Department routinely skirted until DEI policies were put in place? Because racism?

The point of that speech was more rhetoric than substance.

The SecDef should have summarized things with "we need to get on a war-time footing, we need you to lead that transformation. We need to prioritize fitness across all ranks, lead by example, and ensure ever soldier from Private to General is fit to fight."

Instead, he launched into a populist and divisive diatribe that landed about as well as a wet fart in a silent church. This did nothing but feed the culture war "Us vs. Them" mentality and show how inept he is as the civilian controller or the United States Armed Forces.

 

[Remius]

After having skimmed through the memos here: https://media.defense.gov/2025/Sep/30/2003812317/-1/-1/1/SECRETARY-OF-WAR-ANNOUNCED-MEMORANDUMS.PDF

I don't really see any outlandish things. What do you see as the debacle not limited to a focus on warfighting?

you clearly didn’t watch the show

 

[Genetk44]

More like weaken policies created specifically due to that culture shifting event that happened after the 1950s... Civil Rights something or other... you know? That Act which employers including the Federal Government and Defence Department routinely skirted until DEI policies were put in place? Because racism?

The point of that speech was more rhetoric than substance.

The SecDef should have summarized things with "we need to get on a war-time footing, we need you to lead that transformation. We need to prioritize fitness across all ranks, lead by example, and ensure ever soldier from Private to General is fit to fight."

Instead, he launched into a populist and divisive diatribe that landed about as well as a wet fart in a silent church. This did nothing but feed the culture war "Us vs. Them" mentality and show how inept he is as the civilian controller or the United States Armed Forces.

Exactly!

 

[QV]

you clearly didn’t watch the show

No I did not. But I did read this analysis by NRO (who do not carry water for 47) and it seems the change in direction is positive:

The Military Will Be Stronger for Pete Hegseth’s Commonsense Changes | National Review

The Pentagon is right to pursue a merit-based culture and high standards of physical fitness and training in order to deter and, if necessary, win wars.

www.nationalreview.com

 

[Remius]

No I did not. But I did read this analysis by NRO (who do not carry water for 47) and it seems the change in direction is positive:

The Military Will Be Stronger for Pete Hegseth’s Commonsense Changes | National Review

The Pentagon is right to pursue a merit-based culture and high standards of physical fitness and training in order to deter and, if necessary, win wars.

www.nationalreview.com

As I said. If the whole debacle had been solely about that, it would have been ok.

Notice that we said the whole debacle. Not just one piece of it.

You may have missed the part where Trump advocated using the military against its own citizens.

 

[Genetk44]

No I did not. But I did read this analysis by NRO (who do not carry water for 47) and it seems the change in direction is positive:

The Military Will Be Stronger for Pete Hegseth’s Commonsense Changes | National Review

The Pentagon is right to pursue a merit-based culture and high standards of physical fitness and training in order to deter and, if necessary, win wars.

www.nationalreview.com

If it had just been left as the written memos it would have been fine and even made sense. Hegseths actual speech cast an awful pall over the whole thing. If can find his actual dpeech you should watch it..it did him no credit.

 

[QV]

If it had just been left as the written memos it would have been fine and even made sense. Hegseths actual speech cast an awful pall over the whole thing. If can find his actual dpeech you should watch it..it did him no credit.

Is it possible you are letting your feelings about certain participants interfere with what the intended outcome is supposed to be?

Given that the memos are the written direction to the department (and there appears to be nothing obscene in those), if that is all that is carried out what is the major problem? That's fairly objective.

The manner in which someone gave a speech is going to be pretty subjective starting with whether you even like them or not and should not be used to completely taint the overall objective.