Secretary Hegseth's 'TedTalk'

Yesterday was a big day, there was news in the press that the Secretary of Defense War Pete Hegseth had called all US flag officers - Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, Generals & Admirals - to a meeting at Quantico which is a Marine Base in Virginia.

I'm sure his 45 minute speech to these Generals & Admirals was very jarring, but I wonder if it's appreciated that he's setting a new direction for the armed services. He's right about the military, they are in the business of life and death and anyone who's in the service needs to act accordingly. He definitely emphasize the importance of physical fitness of all servicemembers.

He also emphasizes the meritocracy and no more D.E.I. initiatives. Secretary of War Hegseth wants to insure that no one will get promoted based on their race and gender or some other characteristic. What matters most is how they perform in their roles.

If I wasn't already over the age limit I'd sign up right now just to see if I could make it with these new rigid standards.

Here's his speech. Reminds me of a TedTalk. [VIDEO]

A lot of people who analyzed Secretary Hegseth's speech sort of compared it to the opening scene of Patton with the flag in the background and Patton played by George C. Scott giving his own speech. That would be a very iconic scene that many evoked here.

Also note that Patton is one of the historic generals that the Secretary of War noted in his speech. Some military analysts have noted we no longer have that swashbuckling generals that get the job done these days. Patton was one, MacArthur, Grant, and there are others surely.

Anyone have any thoughts on this. Any currently service military personnel or even veterans have any thoughts on this?

 

Mr. Beat: Iraq War explained

 

[VIDEO] Can you believe this happened over 20 years ago?

Mr. Beat let us know where he was when the war started. For me I was at home and heard thunder. I had to look out of the window, for some reason I thought it was a bomb. Another terrorist attack in my neighborhood although to be honest there are much more high profile targets than a Chicago neighborhood.

According to Mr. Beat this video was controversial. He was commenting about how YouTube age-restricted his video which curtailed his ability to make money on it primarily through ads. He's done well enough where his videos often had sponsors, however, this Iraq War video had no sponsor.

One take away from this episode, Americans were freaked out over what happened on Sept. 11, 2001. There was no real connection with Iraq before the 2003 war and Al-Qaeda the terrorist group - responsible for the Sept 11th terrorist attack - lead by Usama bin Laden. I do believe Saddam Hussein was an awful poker player and paid for his miscalculation. I believe he was a bad man and the world is a better place without him running Iraq.

Regardless, this was a bit of a blunder and since then America's politicians which includes the 45th POTUS Donald Trump (a Republican) have been reticient to involve American troops in escapades such as this. This war proved to be a similar situation to Vietnam and helped to erode the trust of American citizens in their government.