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.

 

[The Bread Guy]

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 outwhat is the major problem? That's fairly objective.

And I'm sure what POTUS47 and SECDEFIDENTIFYINGASSECWAR said will have noooooooooooooothing to do with how the written orders are interpreted, right?

Meantime, Big Catholic Church seems worried at the latest out of Trump/Hegseth.

Pope Leo XIV says Hegseth’s talk of war is ‘worrying’

Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday said the U.S. Department of Defense secretary’s way of speaking about war is “worrying.”

www.catholicnewsagency.com

For the record, this is the same gang also eulogizing Charlie Kirk reasonably briskly, putting them beyond what many would consider broadly "woke" these days.

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Find the information you are looking for: use the advanced search option to find the article you need on Vatican News.

www.vaticannews.va

 

[Genetk44]

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.

As I said... the written documents are ok and speak for themselves. The actual speech by Sec. Def is the problem. I'm assuming based on your comment above you still have not actually listened to the speech.

 

[QV]

As I said... the written documents are ok and speak for themselves. The actual speech by Sec. Def is the problem. I'm assuming based on your comment above you still have not actually listened to the speech.

Meh, I caught some clips in the media (I'll assume the media put out the worst of it) and I'm not overly fussed.

So to summarize:

• Hegseth remains bad
• Trump remains bad
• re-focus military on war fighting = good

If I were an American who cared about the armed forces, I could live with that for this particular topic.

 

[mariomike]

Pete put it this way,

The era of unprofessional appearance is over. No more beardos.

His boss went on, again, about Canada becoming the 51st state.

No mention of what happens when his followers leave their maga regalia back in the.States when traveling ,if they can no longer pass themselves off as Canadians.

 

[Czech_pivo]

Pete put it this way,



His boss went on, again, about Canada becoming the 51st state.

No mention of what happens when his followers leave their maga regalia back in the.States when traveling ,if they can no longer pass themselves off as Canadians.

Wonder if Canadian flag and Canadian pin sales have spiked in the US over the last 8-9 months.

 

[Quirky]

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

You mean go after criminals like Antifa in woke democratic controlled cities? Send them!

His boss went on, again, about Canada becoming the 51st state.

That's cute that people in central and eastern Canada think they're included. When Trump says "canada the 51st state", he really means the western provinces. He doesn't need any more democratic supporters.

 

[Czech_pivo]

You mean go after criminals like Antifa in woke democratic controlled cities? Send them!



That's cute that people in central and eastern Canada think they're included. When Trump says "canada the 51st state", he really means the western provinces. He doesn't need any more democratic supporters.

Go ask a US farmer if they are happy right about now with how 47 is running things.

So when you mean 'Western provinces', what you're specifically talking about is the oil/gas employees in Alberta and some living people in the cities of Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer - that's about it.

 

[QV]

The US undoubtably wants to secure energy sources.