THE SET-UP: All you need to know about the current state of the Pentagon comes in this excerpt from a recent story in the New York Times on the unprecedented role being played by Pete “Beerbong” Hegseth’s wife:
Mrs. Hegseth was for years Mr. Hegseth’s producer at Fox News as he built a broadcast career. Now, seven years into their marriage, she is his most influential adviser and his de facto producer at the Pentagon. She has prepped him for appearances, sat in on his meetings with journalists, interviewed potential members of his staff and brainstormed ideas for the Defense Department videos he — and sometimes she — appears in.
You see, Pete’s not the Secretary of Defense. He’s actually the host of an infotainment program, much like you’d see on the weekend at FOX News or on FOX Nation. He’s not managing the war or the defense production deficit or anything else a Secretary of Defense is expected to do. He is the star of a show being produced on the fly by his wife. It has all the gaudy, over-the-top hyperpatriotism and kulturkampf accoutrements you’ll find on many of FOX’s vividly-colored, graphics-laden programs.
It’s the Department of War, starring Pete Hegseth! And Jennifer Hegseth is right there to make sure he hits his marks … and not the bottle. And it explains why everything is being mismanaged. The Iran War has been all but lost. The Navy is mired in a morale morass. The Army’s chain of command has been crippled by purges. And Pete’s busy in hair and makeup, getting ready for his next staged performance.
At least someone—perhaps Jennifer—realized months ago that Pete’s orgiastic glee about blowing up stuff wasn’t a hit with viewers, so they cancelled the “Pentagon Briefing” segment. His orgiastic glee is also why the US shot its kinetic wad all over Iran … and still the regime stands, thus demonstrating the limits of the vaunted US military. Now they are scrambling to invent some new leverage with double secret probation-level economic sanctions.
The Iranians responded by announcing a tentative power and revenue-sharing deal with Oman that would give Iran a far stronger hold on the Strait than it had seven months ago. Sec’y of State Marco Rubio responded by announcing a pause in bombing … until after the midterms. Pete, of course, said bombing could still happen … really … he knows it can happen … he really wants it to happen … hey, is anybody even listening to him?
Meanwhile, the real world consequences of governing like a reality show are piling up like tankers on either side of the Strait of Hormuz. If nothing else, this utterly dysfunctional approach to running the world’s largest military and its most sprawling bureaucracy is defeating itself. I just wonder what Pete’s patriarchal guru thinks about Jennifer wearing the battle fatigues in the family. - jp
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