"Ben Hodges, a retired general, took to social media to evoke a bit of history. July 1935, Hodges said. German generals were called to a surprise assembly in Berlin and informed that their previous oath to the Weiman constitution was void and that they would be required to swear a personal oath to the Fuhrer. Most generals took the new oath to keep their positions."
"Yet when the meeting finally happened on Tuesday morning, the army generals and navy admirals were treated to a 45-minute speech by Hegseth, followed by a rambling, hour-long address by Trump, which confirmed at least some of what Hodges seemed to fear. The defense secretary emphasized the army's appearance, decrying fat troops and fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon, and signaled his intent to reshape the military's culture so as to purge wokeness and evoke a more masculine image."
"No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, he said. No more division, distraction and gender delusions. No more debris. As I've said before, and will say again: We are done. With that. Shit. The military, Hegseth suggested, would become an advertisement for the Trump regime's preferred cultural style, and this transformation will evidently involve many changes to what the armed forces look like when they are photographed."
All active-duty generals were summoned to an in-person assembly at Quantico. A retired general likened the summons to a 1935 German precedent in which officers were forced to shift oaths. At the meeting Hegseth and Trump delivered lengthy speeches emphasizing appearance and a purge of "wokeness," with explicit bans on identity months, DEI offices, and what Hegseth called gender delusions. Hegseth announced plans to curtail or eliminate equal opportunity, whistleblower, inspector general, and complaint procedures. The proposed changes appear aimed at reversing efforts to reduce sexual assault and increase accountability in the 2010s.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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