258

Hegseth Summoned Military Leaders to Say “FAFO” in Disturbing Speech (newrepublic.com)

submitted 6 days ago by AcidiclyBasicGlitch@sh.itjust.works to c/news@lemmy.world

49 comments fedilink hide all child comments

“To our enemies: FAFO,” Hegseth said, using an acronym that translates to “fuck around and find out.”

Hegseth ordered hundreds of U.S. military officials around the globe to meet him at a spontaneous assembly in Virginia, keeping the details of the gathering extremely hush-hush.

The message shocked members of the U.S. military, who could not recall another instance in which a defense secretary summoned so many commanders for a sudden in-person meeting—especially without a clear rationale. Some warned that having so many integral military leaders in one place could pose a national security risk.

As it turns out, the rationale was to rail against the culture wars. Hegseth, pacing back and forth onstage, also leveraged his time in front of America’s military to criticize “woke” ideology. He ordered the armed forces to reset its combat requirements to the “highest male standard only,” a decision that would effectively force women out of the military.

“If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is,” Hegseth said.

The Pentagon chief also nixed medical beard waivers, a decision that will disproportionately affect Black service members due to the curl pattern of the hair on their face.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 27 points 6 days ago

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.

[-] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 16 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

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

[-] TrickDacy@lemmy.world 6 points 6 days ago

I really, really hope your experience is indicative of a larger pattern of thought. Thanks for sharing it.

this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2025

258 points (100.0% liked)

News

32631 readers

2827 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

Thekingoflorda@lemmy.world

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world