By Charles C. W. Cooke
Wednesday, November 13, 2024
I don’t possess even a smidgen of John Noonan’s national
security expertise, but I nevertheless wish to agree with his post here on the Corner regarding the nomination of Pete
Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. From my perspective, Hegseth is a fine pick.
I hope the Senate will agree.
As John notes, it’s rather churlish to describe Hegseth
as merely “a guy on TV,” as so many commentators have. He went to Princeton and
Harvard. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan, winning two bronze stars in the
process. He has experience in private enterprise. He’s been a tireless advocate
for veterans — and, better still, he’s been one of those tireless advocate for
veterans whom veterans actually like. Sure, he’s now on TV. So is
Michael Strahan. That doesn’t tell us much about his past.
As far as I can tell, Hegseth also has the right personal
qualities for the role. I am just one voter — and this is just my one view —
but, as someone who regularly spent time with Pete a few years ago when we did
a TV show together, I will tell happily anyone who will listen that he is a
smart, caring, curious, hard-working guy who treated everyone around him with
respect. The news of this nomination was first presented to me alongside a
dismissive “wow.” I do not share that sentiment. My reaction, instead, was
“sure.” I haven’t seen or spoken to Pete for years, but, unless he’s turned
into a different man in the interim, there’s nothing “wow” about this choice
other than that it was unexpected.
The broader arguments I’ve seen made against the pick do
not impress me either. Yes, Hegseth is young. But so what? At 44, he’s just
three years younger than Barack Obama was when Obama was elected president,
and, frankly, he’s done a lot more with his life thus far than Obama had at
that point. Moreover, there may actually be a benefit to his youth. The
current Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, is 71. Trump’s first-term pick, Jim
Mattis, was 67 when he took the job. Hegseth is thus a lot closer in age to the
average deployed American than either of those men — which, given the apparent
disconnect between the rank-and-file and the top brass, and the arrival of the worst recruiting crisis “since the creation of the
all-volunteer force,” might not be a bad thing. Yes, he’s something of an
outsider. But that’s not always bad, you know. Have we forgotten about the
current guy, who lied to President Biden about being hospitalized for four
days, who has presided over one disaster after another, and who, despite his insistence to the contrary,
has permitted some of the worst progressive ideas to wiggle their way into his tent.
CNN reports that, when responding to the news yesterday, “one
defense official” told the network that “everyone is simply shocked.” If that
was supposed to alarm me, it did not. One of the most precious principles that
undergirds the United States is that the military must be subordinate to the
civil power. Naturally, this does not make everyone within the civil power
qualified to be Secretary of Defense. But it should temper any
temptation one might have toward prioritizing the preferences and interests of
the existing bureaucracy. The president is the commander-in-chief, and the
Secretary of Defense serves at his pleasure. If that president wants Pete
Hegseth to fill the role — and if Pete Hegseth is duly confirmed by a majority
of the Senate (not recess appointed, confirmed) — then Pete Hegseth ought to be Secretary
of Defense. Any argument to the contrary should be grounded in more than that
the guy once threw an ax on TV.
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