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Pete Hegseth Just Did Us All a Big Favor

FRAN KORTEN and DAVID KORTEN | October 2, 2025

On Tuesday, September 30, Pete Hegseth, now serving as Trump’s Secretary of War, called together roughly 800 U.S. generals and admirals at the Marine Crops Base in Quantico, VA. No one was told exactly why. It wasn’t framed as a strategic summit or a war council. It wasn’t tied to any pressing global crisis. But the outcome may prove far more consequential than Hegseth himself ever intended.

Because in one room, on one stage, Hegseth and Trump revealed to America’s top military leaders the emptiness, recklessness, and danger of their approach. And those leaders, sitting shoulder to shoulder, had the rare chance to witness it — and process it — together.

Donald Trump speaks to top miliary officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, Sept. 30, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Pool via Associated Press.

The Speeches They Heard

Hegseth opened with a tirade against the military’s culture. saying he was tired of seeing unfit and overweight troops and “fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon.” He claimed too many promotions had been based on race and gender quotas, sneering: “We became the woke department. We are done with that shit.”

His message was not subtle: Warfighting should be about “violence, precision, and ferocity.” Though he used the language of professionalism at points, the spirit of his words suggested a shift away from the discipline and restraint that define military ethics and toward an ethic of raw aggression.

Then Trump took the podium. For 70 meandering minutes, he veered from declaring Canada the “51st state,” to recounting how carefully he descends stairs, to lamenting the aesthetics of certain Navy ships and demanding stationery with real gold lettering.

But amid the incoherence came one chillingly clear declaration: The true war, he told the generals, is not against foreign adversaries but against “the enemies within,” beginning in our cities. Democratic-run cities, he said, have become unsafe and must be “straightened out, one by one.” U.S. cities, in his telling, should serve as training grounds for military force.

Why Being Together Mattered

The generals sat silent — as military discipline requires. But silence does not mean assent. What mattered most was not that each officer heard these words. It was that they heard them together, in real time, in the same room.

In today’s world, they know every communication is vulnerable. No email, no encrypted text, not even a secure phone call is truly safe. But sitting across a table, walking outside after the speeches, or meeting quietly over coffee, they can ask the questions they would never dare type:

What the hell did we just hear?
What would you do if ordered to deploy troops against Chicago or Portland?
How should we respond if the President asks us to fire on fellow citizens?
Where is the line between loyalty and law, between obedience and treason?

We may never know what was whispered in those one-on-one conversations. But what we do know is that Hegseth unintentionally gave them the rare chance to compare notes, to test one another’s boundaries, and to strengthen their sense of the difficult choices ahead.

The Favor Hidden in the Folly

Hegseth thought he was projecting strength. Trump thought he was intimidating the brass. In truth, Hegseth and Trump both showed weakness, incoherence, and contempt for the institutions of the U.S. military and the very Constitution these officers are sworn to defend.

By bringing the generals together, Hegseth inadvertently created the conditions for solidarity among them. Leaders who might otherwise doubt their own instincts could confer with their peers and realize: I am not alone in finding this unacceptable.

America’s Tradition of Military Restraint

For nearly 250 years, the U.S. military has existed under civilian command — but with an equally vital ethic of restraint: It defends the nation, it does not wage war on its own people.

The framers of the Constitution, mindful of European monarchs who turned armies on their own citizens, embedded this principle into law. The Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 restricted federal troops from domestic law enforcement. Though exceptions have been carved out, the principle has endured: The military does not turn its guns inward.

That is the tradition Trump and Hegseth now openly seek to overturn.

The Choice Facing the Generals

Every officer in that room has sworn an oath — not to a president, not to a party, but to the Constitution of the United States.

In ordinary times, that oath requires little strain. But when presidents demand the extraordinary — unlawful orders, unconstitutional missions — the true meaning of the oath comes into focus.

Hegseth’s gathering put that choice squarely before them. And the generals did not have to wrestle with it in isolation. They looked each other in the eye. They could quietly acknowledge: We may be tested. We must be ready to answer.

History’s Judgment

Moments like these echo through history. In Germany in the 1930s, too many generals chose obedience over principle. In Chile in 1973, the military destroyed its own democracy. But in Spain after Franco, and in South Korea in the 1980s, military leaders stepped aside, allowing democracy to take root.

The generals at Quantico may not have realized it, but they now stand in that same stream of history. Their choices will shape America’s future — and history’s judgment will be severe.

Conclusion

So yes, Pete Hegseth just did us all a big favor. By convening hundreds of generals in one room and exposing them to Trump’s incoherence and his own bombast, he created a moment of collective clarity. He gave America’s top military leaders the chance to compare notes, to whisper doubts, to prepare.

He cannot take that back. The words have been spoken. The doubts have been planted. The generals have looked one another in the eye.

And when the unlawful order comes, those private conversations may make the difference between compliance and courage.

Thank you, Pete. In your arrogance, you may have sown the seeds of essential lawful resistance.

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