Hegseth pushes to remake the military in his preferred image

By Haley Britzky, Zachary Cohen, Natasha Bertrand, CNN

(CNN) — Before a captive audience of hundreds of senior military officers on Tuesday morning, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth asserted his vision for how the US military will physically look and act, and offered a stark conclusion: If you don’t agree, resign.

“The sooner we have the right people, the sooner we can advance the right policies … but if the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he said.

The right policies, according to Hegseth, center on his broader campaign against past efforts that he has deemed “woke” aimed at promoting diversity or accommodating troops — the specifics of which were made official in 10 directives sent out to military leadership as he spoke.

There will be no “fat troops” or “fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon,” Hegseth said. Troops will be clean shaven, and the military will offer few if any exemptions, either for religious or medical needs. There will be only male physical standards for combat jobs, and if that means there are no women in those roles, “it is what it is,” Hegseth said.

The directives largely roll back efforts made over the last decade attempting to eradicate toxic culture in the military, both to decrease harmful behaviors like harassment, but also to meet practical needs of getting people in uniform and keeping them there longer as the military branches faced years of struggles filling the ranks.

Many major reforms were described by the officials who implemented them as driven by that need; when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter opened up combat roles to women in 2015, he said the military “cannot afford to cut ourselves off from half the country’s talents and skills” if it wanted to succeed in national defense.

And while the military had made changes in recent years in an attempt to lessen instances of harassment, discrimination or toxic leadership by creating reporting mechanisms so that troops would come forward, Hegseth said those efforts went too far and were undercutting commanders.

“The definition of ‘toxic’ has been turned upside down, and we’re correcting that,” Hegseth vowed on Tuesday, adding that the Defense Department would be undertaking a review of words like “hazing” and “bullying” which he said had been “weaponized.”

Hegseth’s remarks were delivered to generals and admirals who were ordered on short notice to attend the event at the military installation in Quantico, Virginia. Many are stationed overseas, and sources have described the expected cost of the event to rise into the millions given the logistics involved.

‘Stupid rules’

Hegseth called for troops to ignore “stupid rules of engagement.” Rules of engagement are directives governing how and when force can be used by the US military.

“We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy,” Hegseth said. “We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”

Hegseth has long been deeply skeptical of war crimes investigations and has advocated for President Donald Trump to pardon or grant clemency to at least three service members accused of war crimes since 2019. In his remarks on Tuesday, Hegseth appeared to criticize a retired US Army general — Peter Chiarelli — who formally reprimanded Hegseth’s former brigade commander in 2007. The commander, Michael Steele, had been accused of issuing improper orders to his soldiers that led to the deaths of unarmed Iraqis.

“The new compass heading is clear — out with the Chiarellis, the McKenzies, and the Milleys. And in with the Stockdales, the Schwarzkopfs, and the Pattons,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth said the issues he was discussing Tuesday could not “go another day” without being addressed. His remarks were followed by a speech from Trump, who before attending told reporters he would fire officers “right on the spot” if he didn’t like them.

One former senior Pentagon official, who has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations and who listened to Hegseth’s speech and spoke with officials in the room, described his remarks as “uninspired.” The former official said it was largely what everyone expected but still sounded more like what a platoon leader in their early 20s would say to their young, enlisted troops.

“These guys were captains and majors in the wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan, the former senior official said of the officers in the room. “Many of them wounded, with Silver Stars and Purple Hearts. And here’s this guy — the youngest guy in the room, the most inexperienced guy in the room, with the least amount of combat time in the room … lecturing them?”

Reversing past policies

Hegseth, a former National Guard major, has frequently criticized the military’s general officer corps for what he has said is their involvement in the politicization of the military.

The secretary — who has said he will return the Pentagon to focusing solely on warfighting — told senior officers that the issue of threats to the homeland and deterring China was “another speech for another day.” He also hinted at future policy on weapons purchasing that might shift. But on Tuesday his remarks focused closely on cultural issues that have been at the center of his tenure.

Among the 10 directives are also an overhaul of the Pentagon Inspector General, which has for months been reviewing Hegseth’s use of Signal to discuss sensitive military details, and the military’s equal opportunity programs meant to respond to reports of harassment and discrimination.

Another former senior defense official who spoke to people in the room said the speech was “received as fairly neutral and expected in terms of his views.”

The former senior official said while it’s true there are sometimes frivolous complaints to the IG or EO offices that should be addressed, or issues with the processes, “you have to wonder what the second and third order effects of that will be.” It’s likely, they said, that there will be a “backsliding” in handling things like sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior.

“I would assume they’ll still investigate anything money related, if a soldier gets killed that’s going to be investigated, so really I think what this is, is people are sick and tired of not being able to make inappropriate or sexually explicit jokes at the staff meetings,” the former official said. The official also said it would largely protect general officers more from complaints by their troops, which if Hegseth is “not careful, could put him sideways with his base.”

Hegseth framed the broader set of policies he was promoting as part of a broader ending of “woke” policies put in place by prior administrations.

“This administration has done a great deal from Day 1 to remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics, no more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship, no more division, distraction, or gender delusions. No more debris,” he said.

“As I’ve said before, and will say again, we are done with that shit.”

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