To The Secretary Of Defense: “You’re Fired.” Maybe
By
Leonard Zwelling
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/opinion/atlantic-hegseth-vance-houthis.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/health/nih-doge-trump.html?searchResultPosition=2
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/26/health/trump-state-health-grants-cuts.html
By now, the world knows that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, someone with no qualifications for the job, and who has the job thanks to Vice President J.D. Vance breaking a tie vote in the Senate for Hegseth’s confirmation meaning Republicans voted against him, has broken national security norms by revealing our war plans against the Houthis in Yemen in a group text/call that included editor Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic.
Enough already!
Look, it is bad enough that we have to hear Robert F. Kennedy, Jr lecture us on health and vaccines while the NIH is summarily stripped of its ability to do research and communicate results to the outside world (see second story, above), but now we have a careless amateur as the head of our military.
MAGA world just loves Mr. Trump and his posse of inexperienced bros and gals, but this has reached beyond two standard deviations from the mean of mediocrity that characterized past administrations including that of Mr. Trump’s first term.
We live in a dangerous world of rapacious villains and inept leaders. In the past, the United States could be counted on to guide the alliance of freedom throughout the globe even when our Presidents were a bit shaky. You know, the Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. These are but a few in a host of bad decisions made by Republicans and Democrats alike. Nonetheless, the only instances of Americans, let alone American governmental officials, giving away battle plans that I remember were when those Americans were spies or traitors.
The Trump Administration is trying to minimize the gravity of the mistake by the Secretary of Defense and other high-level officials on the line for the call (or group text or whatever it was). This has also become the standard response of both Republicans and Democrats alike. No one is accountable for anything. The obfuscate and hedge. And, of course, whataboutism—well, we did bad, but not as bad as they did. What about that?
Instead of calling for the resignation of anyone (although it’s close), let’s instead admit that a mistake was made and that it was not malevolent, but that there needs to be an allocution as in a plea of guilty in a court of law. Someone needs to own up to this blunder.
Imagine, if Bill Clinton had just said he did have sex with Monica Lewinsky. The whole thing would have been over in a day. Imagine if Richard Nixon said that he was a crook, but I’m your crook. Watergate would have been on page six. And, finally, what if Jill Biden lovingly spoke to the nation about the fact that her husband was indeed impaired in 2022? Bingo–a Democratic primary and a possible winning candidate.
When I was a small boy, my father insisted that I own up to my mistakes and apologize for them. The pain was significant, but brief. What ever happened to that American value?
As Mr. Trump and his reaper-in-chief Elon Musk continue to cut needed federal services like another $12B to state health agencies (see third story), I am more than a bit concerned. What is Mr. Trump’s real motive behind these moves? I understand the transactional nature of his personality when it comes to dealing with foreign countries. What I do not understand is his tolerance for actions by his administration that are clearly bad for the American people and are threatening to undermine the rule of law.
Does anybody else wonder who this guy is really working for?
