Hegseth only wants ‘real men’

Whilst the Pentagon’s Inspector General, in a report published on Monday, confirmed for the first time the severe ammunition shortage facing the United States due to the war in Iran, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has only one thing on his mind: the physical well-being of soldiers. In the first report by the Pentagon’s independent oversight body submitted to Parliament, the inspector stated that between 28 February and 30 June, Operation Epic Fury cost $33.4 billion, of which $22.3 billion was spent exclusively on ammunition, leading to “strategic inventory shortfalls and revealing bottlenecks in the industrial base for ammunition supply”. In August, Hegseth had dismissed the CNN reports as false, writing “shame” alongside a screenshot of the news item on X, adding “we don’t hate the fake news media enough”.

The head of the Pentagon has shown himself to be uninterested in the US military’s weapons shortage; he is too preoccupied with his own image: last year he convened a ‘top-secret’ meeting of the Armed Forces’ generals; everyone was expecting a major announcement, but in the end the solemn address amounted to: you are too fat, you are too bearded, you are too effeminate, you are too ‘woke’.  A few months ago, he returned to the subject of the importance of having physically fit soldiers in the army, announcing annual tests on their testosterone levels and, in the event of a drop in the hormone, specific treatments on a voluntary basis. Now, according to an exclusive report in the Wall Street Journal, ahead of his address on the state of the Armed Forces on 30 September, Hegseth sent an email on Tuesday to army commanders asking them to nominate service personnel of “impeccable” appearance who meet certain “physical standards”: they must pass the army’s prescribed waist-to-height ratio and physical fitness tests, and have “impeccable appearance and perfect uniform standards (no exceptions)”. Only real men.