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https://theconversation.com/warrior-ethos-mistakes-military-might-for-true-security-and-ignores-the-wisdom-of-eisenhower-266213>
"Hundreds of generals and admirals converged on Quantico, Virginia, on Sept.
30, 2025, after being summoned from across the globe by their boss, Pentagon
chief Pete Hegseth, for a session that, as expected, covered what Hegseth often
describes as the “warrior ethos.”
Listening quietly, they heard Hegseth promise to make the military “stronger,
tougher, faster, fiercer and more powerful than it has ever been before,” and
declare that he would fix “decades of decay” in the military.
President Donald Trump spoke for more than an hour in a political speech that
derided presidents who came before him. He asserted that “political
correctness” would be banished from the military.
The meeting came soon after Trump’s Sept. 5 executive order renaming the
Department of Defense the “Department of War.” With that change, Trump reverted
the department to a name not used since the 1940s.
The change represents far more than rebranding – it signals an escalation in
the administration’s embrace of a militaristic mindset that, as long ago as
1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned against in his farewell address,
and that the nation’s founders deliberately aimed to constrain.
The timing of this name change feels particularly notable when considered
alongside recent reporting revealing secret U.S. military operations. In 2019,
a detachment of U.S. Navy SEALs crept ashore in North Korea on a mission to
plant a listening device during high-stakes nuclear talks. The risks were
enormous: Discovery could have sparked a hostage crisis or even war with a
nuclear-armed foe.
That such an operation was approved by Trump in his first term at all
exemplifies an increasingly reckless militarism that has defined American
foreign policy for decades. That militarism is the very subject of my book,
“Dying by the Sword.”
Further, the name change was announced just days after Trump authorized a U.S.
military strike on a Venezuelan boat that the administration claimed was
carrying drug-laden cargo and linked to the Tren de Aragua cartel. The strike
killed 11 people. The administration justified the killings by labeling them
“narcoterrorists.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
