The 6 new initiatives in Hegseth’s Pentagon

The 6 new initiatives in Hegseth’s Pentagon

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday gave a wide-ranging speech to active-duty officers at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., unveiling six new efforts .

The 52-min speech included the announcement of a new combatant command focused on developing autonomous warfare, the Pentagon’s new partnerships with colleges, a new Office of Religious Affairs and inviting governors to help build a new military base inside the country.

But the event was not without Hegseth’s well-trodden comments on culture-war grievances , stripping the “ woke ” out of the Pentagon, lambasting the news media for its coverage of the Iran war and proclamations that the “warrior ethos” has been revived and the U.S. military has been “rebuilt.”

“I like to think last year’s Quantico speech was ‘Liberation Day’ for leaders, for you, to be the apolitical, hard-charging, commonsense, no-nonsense constitutional leaders that you joined the military to be,” Hegseth said, referring to his address last September to nearly all of the U.S. military’s generals and admirals.

“We are no longer the woke department or the weak department. Simple translation of that: No fatties, no t——-, no beardos, no weirdos, no wimps, no radicals. Just warriors ,” Hegseth continued, using a pejorative term for transgender individuals.

Also at the top of the speech, Hegseth defended his plan to cut 20 percent of generals and admirals at the Pentagon, arguing the major shake-up was “long overdue” at the department.

My colleague Filip Timotija and I watched the speech and have a full breakdown of the six new initiatives announced and who will lead the efforts.

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