{"id":25650,"date":"2025-10-15T19:01:46","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T23:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/?p=25650"},"modified":"2025-10-31T04:18:36","modified_gmt":"2025-10-31T08:18:36","slug":"hegseths-crusade-a-more-white-male-alt-right-us-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/comw.org\/pda\/hegseths-crusade-a-more-white-male-alt-right-us-military\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegseth’s Crusade – a more White, Male, Alt-right US Military"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"Carl Conetta, 15 Oct 2025<\/p>\n

Pete Hegseth wears his masculinist panic on his sleeve when declaring that henceforth all US military personnel will be tested to the \u201chighest male standard\u201d for physical strength and endurance. Why not simply test and talk about a requisite \u201ccombat standard.\u201d What does male have to do with it? Everything…in Hegseth’s calculus.<\/p>\n

Army standards for combat roles were already supposed to be gender and age neutral before he arrived. Exceptions would sometimes be made, however – as should be the case. \u201cShould be\u201d because no team wants to lose its smartest recruit, best shot, or strongest leader because, for instance, they fall short of the stated standard for throwing a heavy medicine ball backward over their head. Or some such. My point: To gain in some areas you may accept a slight deficit in some other. Discretion and flexibility builds the best team.<\/p>\n

There are important areas of combat skill were men and women test equal – riflery, for instance – and others were women on average out-perform men, such as standing alert watch or exercising fine-motor control. The armed forces test for a variety of skills: General intelligence, cognitive aptitude, visual acuity and tactical awareness, motor control under stress, social and communication skills, leadership skills, and teamwork. In most areas men and women on balance test within range. Not, however, in most areas of brute physical strength. Women may need to train harder – and still fall short of the \u201chighest male standard.\u201d That\u2019s Hegseth\u2019s game. Not \u201cstandard,\u201d but \u201cmale.\u201d Balance and discretion be damned.<\/p>\n

A critical gain in opening the armed forces to women has been that it doubles the recruitment pool. This is especially beneficial for a professional (or voluntary ) military. Overall it can mean less \u201csettling,\u201d not more – assuming a balanced and realistic sense of what is needed. You don\u2019t need to believe that one sex is smarter than the other to appreciate that doubling the recruitment pool increases a recruiter\u2019s chance of filling slots with high achievers.<\/p>\n

Hegseth intends not only to strictly apply the so-called \u201chighest male standard\u201d in physical tests for combat roles, but to raise the bar. Make it more difficult. Again, why? What\u2019s the problem that piques him?<\/p>\n

Tests of physical strength and stamina are meant to mirror combat requirements, although neither tests nor exercises can adequately do that. But what about the \u201ctest\u201d of actual experience in the field? Have actual combat failures inspired Hegseth\u2019s campaign regarding standards? There certainly have been serious, repeated US military failures at the strategic level. But what and where are the supposed causal links to woman in combat? There aren\u2019t any.<\/p>\n

A similar inquiry is due regarding his decision to ban beards (except for Special Operations personnel). How does this purportedly improve performance? When promoting it he cites the practice of \u201cbroken windows\u201d policing, once extolled as a means to generally lower urban crime rates. But this just shows him ignorant of current assessments of that practice. It also still begs the question: What\u2019s the problem he\u2019s hoping to solve?<\/p>\n

Is it relevant that 60% or more of Black men suffer pseudofolliculitis barbae (PFB) – a painful inflammatory condition caused by ingrown hairs and aggravated by shaving? Hegseth will allow temporary exemptions, but the condition is a chronic one. Beard growth is also common among Muslim and Sikh men.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Whatever else it does, banning beards may reduce the prevalence of Black and Muslim men in the US military. And the exception for Special Operators won\u2019t affect this outcome much. While Black Americans currently comprise ~20% of the US armed forces, they comprise only a few percent of Special Operators.<\/p>\n

Returning to the issue of strength testing: Hegseth also aims to end the practice of taking age and gender into account when setting standards for filling occupational specialties other than combat – areas where physical requirements are significantly less demanding (and where other attributes are more important). This will have an even greater impact on women in the military because 90% or more serve in non-combat areas. Moreover, it may also precipitate the early departure of many current male leaders.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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A 50-year-old male colonel serving in Cyber Command may struggle to meet physical standards geared to test young infantry soldiers – which his role does not demand at any rate. So why pursue such a \u201ccleansing\u201d of the guard?<\/p>\n

By pushing the old guard out and selectively moving new leaders up Hegseth can change not just the complexion of the US military, but its culture and orientation. Hegseth has shown no compunction about tossing out years of military experience, telling the hundreds of officers assembled at his Sept 30 sermon, \u201cIf the words I’m speaking today are making your heart sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although some reporting suggests that Hegseth\u2019s brusque and presumptuous manner has alienated many service people, he probably also commands a significant following. Trump certainly does, probably havinng won about 60% of the active and retired military vote. What\u2019s earned Hegseth in particular an audience is his earlier leadership (albeit troubled) of veterans\u2019 organizations and causes, his best selling books on US military policy, and his seven-year stint as weekend co-host of “Fox & Friends.”<\/p>\n

Some significant numbers of service people may agree with Hegseth that efforts to oppose sexual assault, racism, and extremist activity in the ranks have been overwrought (even though the opposite is true). Indeed, DOD Workplace and Equal Opportunity surveys show that as many as 30% of white male service members believe equal opportunity efforts are overdone. Some may also affirm his defense of soldiers accused or found guilty of war crimes. About 40% of Americans did support a series of related pardons in Trump\u2019s first term.<\/p>\n

These are among the issues that animate Hegseth\u2019s crusade and they affirm its ideological nature. So does the diatribe against earlier administrations that appears in his 2024 book, \u201cThe War on Warriors.\u201d There he avers that an \u201cunholy alliance of political ideologues and Pentagon pussies has left our warriors without real defenders in Washington.\u201d Well, the man is nothing if not vile.<\/p>\n

Where Hegseth hopes to lead goes beyond transforming America\u2019s armed forces. He emphatically asserts that his oath of service is to defend the constitution \u201cagainst all enemies \u2014 both foreign and domestic.\u201d In this light, it\u2019s portentous that President Trump, speaking at Hegseth\u2019s Sept 30 meeting of top military leaders, said that the administration\u2019s effort to straighten out cities \u201crun by radical left Democrats\u201d will have \u201ca major part for some of the people in this room.\u201d<\/p>\n

How far and how fast can Hegseth turn the Pentagon? Well, what might impede him is the value that the armed services place on professionalism. Against this, Hegseth seems more ideological and disruptive than the policies he rails against. He may also convey as too zealous and histrionic – more like a right-wing militia chief than an armed forces commander. Polls of US service people find that they do not, in fact, see themselves as crusaders. But Hegseth? He\u2019s wears a large Crusader\u2019s Cross tattooed on his chest.<\/p>\n

Background<\/strong><\/p>\n

Secretary of War [sic] Pete Hegseth Addresses General and Flag Officers at Quantico, Virginia,<\/a> 20 Sept 2025,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Donald Trump Addresses Military Leadership in Quantico, Virginia,<\/a> 30 Sep 2025.<\/p>\n

Air & Space Forces, \u201cInside the Room for Trump and Hegseth\u2019s Speeches to Top Military Brass,\u201d<\/a> 30 Sep 2025.<\/p>\n

The Guardian, \u201cPete Hegseth to overhaul US military lawyers in effort to relax rules of war,\u201d<\/a> 13 Mar 2025.<\/p>\n

NY Magazine, \u201cTrump\u2019s New Core Mission for the Military: Fighting the \u2018Enemy Within\u2019,\u201d<\/a> 30 Sept 2025.<\/p>\n

Politico, \u201c\u2018Could have been an email\u2019: Officials balk at Hegseth’s generals meeting.\u201d<\/a> 30 Sep 2025<\/p>\n

The Guardian, \u201cVeterans react to Hegseth\u2019s \u2018insulting\u2019 address to generals and admirals,\u201d<\/a> 1 Oct 2025.<\/p>\n

The Hill, \u201cHegseth\u2019s ultimatum to generals sparks fears of departures,\u201d<\/a> 7 Oct 2025.<\/p>\n

Army Times, \u201cArmy combat fitness test threatens to undermine combat effectiveness,\u201d<\/a> 25 July 2024.<\/p>\n

Parameters, \u201cWhat Women Bring to the Fight,\u201d<\/a> 13 Jan 2012.<\/p>\n

RAND, \u201cSexual Assault Experiences in the Active-Component Army: Variation by Year, Gender, Sexual Orientation, and Installation Risk Level.\u201d<\/a> 20 Oct 2022.<\/p>\n

Costs of War, \u201cDeserted: The U.S. Military’s Sexual Assault Crisis as a Cost of War,\u201d<\/a> 14 Aug 2024.<\/p>\n

Military Times, “Signs of white supremacy, extremism up again in poll of active-duty troops,”<\/a> 6 Feb 2020.<\/p>\n

Center for Naval Analysis, “Racial Extremism in the Military: A Continuum of Harm,”<\/a> 1 Oct 2021, a PDF file.<\/p>\n

START, “Radicalization in the Ranks,”<\/a> 16 Dec 2024.<\/p>\n

“AP finds that a Pentagon-funded study on extremism in the military relied on old data,”<\/a> 26 Nov 2024.<\/p>\n

National Interest, “Why Do People Join the US Military? Here Are the Top 5 Reasons,”<\/a> 19 Mar 2021<\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carl Conetta, 15 Oct 2025 Pete Hegseth wears his masculinist panic on his sleeve when declaring that henceforth all US military personnel will be tested to the \u201chighest male standard\u201d for physical strength and endurance. 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