Summary

Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s nominee for Defense Secretary, has sparked controversy over his extremist rhetoric, detailed in his 2020 book American Crusade.

Hegseth advocates for a “holy war” against leftist “enemies” and envisions a potential civil war if Democrats prevail politically, stating the military and police would need to choose sides.

He openly dismisses democracy, endorses gerrymandering, and promotes nationalist, anti-globalist ideologies.

Critics warn of his loyalty to Trump and his potential support for militarized actions against domestic opposition, raising alarms about his suitability to oversee the Pentagon.

  • teft@lemmy.world
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    23 hours ago

    Does he think the military is a monolith? There are plenty of people on both sides of the political spectrum. If anything the military will fracture in a civil war.

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
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      16 hours ago

      Time and time again the US military has been perfectly fine turning its weapons on Americans. I don’t think we should have any faith in US military personnel standing up.

      • teft@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        Maybe, but from my experience in the army they’d have to purge more than half the force. And then you have lots and lots soldiers unaligned to your views with nothing to do. Rebel armies have been constructed with less.

        Just saying.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          22 hours ago

          They’re planning to use Schedule F to fire hired government employees and replace them with loyalists, regardless of their experience or qualifications. This wouldn’t apply to troops, but it would apply to the DOD.

          Soldiers would be given orders by the loyalists. I’m assuming they’d be dishonorably discharged for insubordination if they refused to follow orders, but you’d know better than me.

          • snowboardbum@lemmy.world
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            22 hours ago

            The military has spent a good decade now training soldiers to know what an illegal order is and that they best ignore it.

            • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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              19 hours ago

              Or else what, now? The threat of military and civilian justice doesn’t work well in a system that will almost certainly be rigged to ignore anything illegal that a soldier does in the commission of Trump’s orders. The entire indoctrination there relies heavily on the threat of military and DOJ proceedings, and once both of those are pretty well captured, there’s really not much. We have a law that says the ICC can’t prosecute American soldiers for war crimes - in fact, attempting to do so is considered an act of war.

              I don’t disagree that a lot of the military won’t follow orders at first, but I think when some of them start realizing that their fellow soldiers are getting away with things that would normally be considered criminal, you’ll see them starting to turn around on it. Corruption is a cancer and in this case, it’s poised to be incredibly aggressive.