The guy Hegseth/Trump have in charge of the new tests for military officer promotion doesn’t have the basic experience to know how to judge competence at high officer levels. When speaking about the current process, he says things that are just wrong.
The historical example Hegseth cites as what inspired him was an exercise to test maneuver and communications capability, not as a test for promotions. It was only used to evaluate commanders as a secondary element.
A lot of the things Hegseth says is needed to evaluate high level officers, are already done…he talks as if he is not aware of this. Is he ignorant, or/and is the point to these tests something else?
In justifying the new policy, multiple things Hegseth said about US military history was inaccurate.
‘I want generals like Hitler had’ ~ Donald J Trump…according to his former chief of staff.
“”He commented more than once that, ‘You know, Hitler did some good things, too,'” Kelly recalled to The Times. Kelly said he would usually quash the conversation by saying “nothing (Hitler) did, you could argue, was good,” but that Trump would occasionally bring up the topic again.
In his interview with The Atlantic, Kelly recalled that when Trump raised the idea of needing “German generals,” Kelly would ask if he meant “Bismarck’s generals,” referring to Otto von Bismarck, the former chancellor of the German Reich who oversaw the unification of Germany. “Surely you can’t mean Hitler’s generals,” Kelly recalled asking Trump. To which the former president responded, “Yeah, yeah, Hitler’s generals.””
What’s better, a cheaper drone that is less stealthy and therefore will have a higher attrition rate, or a stealthy drone that is more expensive but will be shot down at a lower rate?
The US is training in techniques and developing weapons to defend military men and women against drones. Drones have likely greatly weakened the ability of the US to exercise power on the ground.
Egypt is allowing China to test their planes against Western fighters. This makes China better able to defeat Western countries in war. Egypt is not a good friend to the United States even though the US gives $1.4 to $2 billion in foreign assistance to Egypt each year.
Trump appears to be single-handedly deciding to use an old aircraft carrier launch system over the Navy’s preference. He doesn’t seem to have a good reason to do this.
Trump’s Secretary of Defense has been firing high-ranking military leaders and often gives little reason why. This removes quality experience and makes it seems like if officers want to get promoted, they have to fit in with Trump politically.