In a highly anticipated in-person speech to nearly every general and admiral in the U.S. military, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth laid down his marker: the warrior ethos must once again define America’s armed forces. A great nation needs a great military. That is his aim.
The audience mattered. Senior officers have lived for decades under politicized leadership that drained readiness and morale. Many of them became complicit in the decay. Hegseth addressed that reality head-on.
Restoring standards
No issue exposes the compromise of standards more clearly than the push to force women into combat roles. In 2015, President Barack Obama ended the combat-exclusion policy that had kept certain military professions male-exclusive. Alongside that change came the promise of a “neutral” fitness test that would evaluate service members without sex-based bias.
Hegseth did not dismiss the service of women or minorities. He rejected the falsehood that readiness and lethality can coexist with preferential treatment.
Reality quickly destroyed the illusion. The Army never implemented a sex-neutral test. Women could apply for the same jobs as men but received higher fitness scores for weaker performances. In 2021, under political pressure, Army generals dropped the “leg tuck” exercise — the only event that measured upper-body pulling strength — because women performed comparatively worse. Senior officers defended these changes as if they were sacred doctrine.
Even special operations forces were not spared. Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, then commander of Army Special Operations Command, produced the “Women in ARSOF” report. He had solicited candid feedback from Green Berets, Rangers, and operators. The report dismissed their concerns as bigotry, portraying combat veterans as sexists in need of re-education.
The 83-page document dwelled on alleged discrimination in schools like Jumpmaster and agonized over access to contraception. It devoted not a single paragraph to whether integrating women made America’s most lethal units more lethal. It didn’t — so the report pretended not to notice.
Research ignored, ideology embraced
Serious studies on women in combat confirm what soldiers already know: Sex-integrated units fight with less effectiveness than male-only ones.
Commanders in 2015 knew this, yet they embraced an ideology that put politics above victory. They proved willing to compromise the standards that safeguard success on the battlefield.
Hegseth’s speech on Tuesday declared that era over and done. The administration will close the door on identity politics in uniform and restore a culture rooted in the warrior ethos, not fashionable slogans.
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Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Consequences of compromise
The consequences are not abstract. Every diluted standard, every political accommodation, every double standard based on sex or race weakens the institution charged with defending the nation. A military that bends to ideology loses sight of its sole purpose: to fight and win wars.
Hegseth did not dismiss the service of women or minorities. He rejected the falsehood that readiness and lethality can coexist with preferential treatment. He rejected the belief that temporary political fashions should rewrite timeless military traditions. And he reminded the brass that generals and admirals who pushed progressive experiments cannot be trusted to restore strength.
The way forward requires courage. Leaders must speak truth over ambition, defend standards without apology, and recommit to preparing soldiers for combat. The pride and strength of the American military depend on it.
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