Inside the Pete Hegseth purge pushing the US Army to breaking point
Joseph Stalin conducted two enormous purges of Red Army officers that decimated its leadership. During the first in 1937-38, three marshals were executed; 13 Army Commanders were removed, and 50 Corps Commanders – some exiled, many killed. All were accused of being ideological traitors.
Stalin was no fool; he understood after cutting off the head of his military that it wasn’t ready to fight Nazi Germany. Many historians view Stalin’s Non-ggression pact with Hitler, which allowed Hitler to fight on a single front and conquer Western Europe, as motivated by his knowledge that unravelling his own army threatened national security.
Now the US is going through our own military purge of what had been acclaimed as the world’s best-led, best-equipped, and best-trained military. At the end of his first term, President Trump accused his Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Mark Milley, of treason for making two calls to his Chinese counterpart, and said that, in earlier times, “the punishment would have been DEATH.” In the second administration, Trump has appointed a Secretary of Defence (“War”) whose military experience consisted only of serving in the National Guard, achieving the rank of major. Nevertheless, Pete Hegseth has strong views on proper qualifications for promotion. The two principal requirements appear to be whiteness and maleness.
Hegseth blames any problem on race, gender and political belief. That he is factually wrong on every count has not prevented him from making policies that dishonour the traditions of the American military. He has called for and ordered what are widely believed to be war crimes. And, as with Stalin in World War II, the military and the country continue to pay the price.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/voices-inside-the-pete-hegseth-purge-pushing-the-us-army-to-breaking-point/ar-AA27GJ4c
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