to the editor: Over the past year, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been fired or forced to retire. more than a dozen high admirals and generals. The last one is the chief of staff of the Army (“Hegseth calls on the Army's highest-ranking uniformed officer to resign as US wages war against Iran”. April 2). And Hegseth also has officers removed (mainly women and people of color) from the lists for promotion to general and admiral.
To our knowledge, in no case has there been any allegation of misconduct or incompetence on the part of any of these officials. In all cases, the actions point to Hegseth's visceral hatred of “wokeness” and diversity, equity, and inclusion in the military. The consequences of this are catastrophic for the United States.
The military's integrity and its oath to the Constitution are the gold standard and have earned the trust of Americans for 250 years. Hegseth's continuation of a culture war against this professionalism will erode the apolitical nature of the military.
We are in the middle of a real war and Hegseth is waging a war against the awakening. We Americans owe it to the men and women of the military to put an end to this.
Peter Huisking, Pasadena
The writer is a retired US Army colonel.
