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Hegseth Summoned Military Leaders to Say “FAFO” in Disturbing Speech
(newrepublic.com)
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this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025
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I wonder how many of our higher military think this is what's needed and appropriate, and how many were thinking "wtf?" I hope many were the latter, and I hope they remember that when called to make a choice of orders to follow vs. the Constitution.
The day after Trump was elected, I was in the Pentagon and it was like a funeral inside. The day before the election, high ranking military officers were openly mocking Trump (even 2 star generals). Maybe because I'm involved in Air Force/Space Force vs Army/Navy/Marines, but every general I've ever met dedicates their lives to the people below them as opposed to their president at the time. When a president comes along and threatens those people, it isn't taken lightly. Again, maybe it is specific to the forces that I work with, or maybe that I work on the acquisition side and not the boots on the ground side, but my impression is that even the very religious and conservative leaders are not happy with how the people they see as their family are being treated.
I am not military, but somehow manage to interact with a lot of veterans. This has been my impression as well, at least among the officers. The higher up the leadership chain, the more they recognize and despise that the military is being used to push politics rather than actually being a functional organization.
There's a great YouTube video of Adm. Gilday defending a non-binary officer in a Senate hearing. The admiral recognizes that running a large, functioning military requires integrating people of all types, and that building camaraderie can be as important as anything else. We can only hope there are enough people like him toward the top to prevent the military from being thoroughly abused.
https://youtu.be/qNwJGum3N8E
I really, really hope your experience is indicative of a larger pattern of thought. Thanks for sharing it.
I would guess based on the smattering of confused applause, lack of rambunctious cheering, and the quickness they cut away that live feed after Trump demonstrated what applause is supposed to look like and walked off stage, it's a majority of the latter.
But I still wouldn't bet on that being any guarantee the constitution will be upheld above the leader's will.
Hegseth thinks he has Trump's plot armor. He doesn't. And, he's young enough that he probably won't croak before the shit hits the fan in true cascading fuck-up fashion. FAFO is right.
Also, I share your uncertainty about whether the constitution will be upheld, but this whole clown show just ticked up the probability by a measurable amount.