# Hegseth calls all of the top military brass together for an in person meeting **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [September 26, 2025, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409 "2025-09-26T02:40:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/261 "2025-10-01T23:16:23Z")
> [@bordelond](#): > > [**The stony silence has already been memorialized**](https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/a-funny-thing-happened-on-the-way) (and not just on Substack by any means). The Trump administration can try to create truth from wisps of smoke … From that link. This really made my blood run cold. > [Hegseth] further suggested that the military under his leadership would begin to ignore the Geneva Conventions to which the U.S. is a signatory: > > > _“We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”_ > > … My italics. “Stupid… overbearing” rules of engagement. 🫤 ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/262 "2025-10-01T23:34:09Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > All I can say is, I’m amazed at the utter confidence (to put it nicely) of a guy like Hegseth. I cannot imagine being a guy with as little credential and experience as him, trying to give such a risible lecture to hundreds of 4-stars. Supreme confidence. You know it took me a while to realize what this whole thing reminds me of. Catch-22. Relax, guys. It’s a satire. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2025, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/263 "2025-10-01T23:48:17Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > “Stupid… overbearing” rules of engagement. You’ll forgive me for reading this as Homer Simpson muttering to himself. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/264 "2025-10-02T00:00:51Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > You’ll forgive me for reading this as Homer Simpson muttering to himself. I’d rather have Homer in charge. At least he’s demonstrated the sin of empathy on more than one occasion. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/265 "2025-10-02T01:43:20Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Then why the addendum about their (lack of) military service? Seems unnecessary unless you believe that the lack of service should equal lack of respect. Totally missing the point. The complaint is that Trump and Hegseth are unilaterally reorganizing the military and lecturing 4 star generals on how to win wars, despite having very limited knowledge of military matters. If Trump was Eisenhower and Hegseth was Georege C. Marshall then they might be qualified to make such recommendations. It was like a little league coach telling Randy Johnson that he was pitching wrong. If Obama had done the same thing with his limited experience he also would have been out of line. But he didn’t so he wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/266 "2025-10-02T04:15:54Z")
> [@Donald Trump](#): > > I don’t like some of the ships you’re doing esthetically. They say, oh, it’s stealth. I say that’s not stealth. An ugly ship is not necessary in order to say you’re stealth. They do look like sea cybertrucks. > **[Stealth ship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealth_ship)** > > A stealth ship is a ship that employs stealth technology construction techniques in an effort to make it harder to detect by one or more of radar, visual, sonar, and infrared methods. > These techniques borrow from stealth aircraft technology, although some aspects such as wake and acoustic signature reduction (acoustic quieting) are unique to stealth ships' design. Although radar cross-section (RCS) reduction is a fairly new concept, many other forms of masking a ship have existed for centuries o... ---
**Author:** ![DWMarch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dwmarch/32/1010_2.png) [@DWMarch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DWMarch)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/267 "2025-10-02T04:21:13Z")
I wonder if Trump could be pranked into thinking that the Cobra Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball was a real military technology that was scrapped because of wokeness. > **[YOJOE.COM | Cobra Pogo Ballistic Battle Ball](https://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/87/pogo/)** A military that fields a vehicle like this isn’t scared of anyone! ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/268 "2025-10-02T05:14:29Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > This really made my blood run cold. > > > [Hegseth] further suggested that the military under his leadership would begin to ignore the Geneva Conventions to which the U.S. is a signatory: > > > > > _“We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy. We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.”_ > > > > … > > My italics. The prospect of a military-led coup in the US — where uniformed leadership decide they’ve had enough of Trump’s anti-democratic bullshit and remove him — gets floated on these boards from time to time. It’s always in the context of Trump violating his inaugural oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, or the prospect of him being a Russian asset, or whatever. And every single time, we have to remind ourselves that it is ingrained deeply into the US military, and _especially_ the officer class, that civilian control is sacrosanct, that orders will be followed except in the most extreme and inarguable circumstances, and that mutiny is utterly unthinkable. Those who understand military culture explain to the political speculators, over and over, that we would need to be in a completely different universe for an American military coup to be even remotely plausible. I have to wonder whether this whole “get ready for us to order you to commit war crimes on a wide scale” thing might not be that universe. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/269 "2025-10-02T11:20:41Z")
I’ll never understand the rosy view many people here have of military coups. “The current president is being authoritarian! Let’s replace him with an unelected authoritarian backed with guns instead of votes!” ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/270 "2025-10-02T11:29:51Z")
Oh, no, don’t get me wrong, I’m not in any way advocating it. It would be a terrible course of events, just terrible in different ways from the current situation. My only point is to wonder whether the calculus that makes such a thing unimaginable in the US should be revisited in light of the fact that the civilian leadership is now _openly_ telling the officers that they will be expected to participate in war crimes in the near future. ---
**Author:** ![CoolHandCox](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coolhandcox/32/16233_2.png) [@CoolHandCox](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoolHandCox)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/271 "2025-10-02T12:23:57Z")
Unless I’m missing context, loosening the rules of engagement doesn’t mean ignore the Geneva Conventions or commit war crimes. The rules of engagement are much tighter than the Geneva conventions. It’s a specific internal military policy each country uses differently. As an analogy, telling someone to speed up (loosen roe) doesn’t mean break the law / go over the speed limit. You can speed up and it can still be legal. Having said that, def Sec heg Seth has no business telling the military what the roe should or shouldn’t be. He’s a joke. I also appreciate the quoted text is somewhat unclear. I don’t read it as removing roe altogether, but just loosen the roe because they are currently to woke/politically correct blah blah blah. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/272 "2025-10-02T13:50:56Z")
Paul Krugman’s Substack today: > **[An Autocracy of Dunces](https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/an-autocracy-of-dunces?source=queue)** > > How stone-faced generals, Wall Street pushback, and a government shutdown may save America’s quickly declining democracy > If America still had a fully functioning democracy, Donald Trump’s speech Tuesday to the assembled generals would have ended his presidency. Trump treated the event like a political rally and was clearly taken aback by the refusal of the audience to applaud or laugh at his jokes. Delivering a nakedly partisan speech to a mandated assembly of military officers was a gross violation of the [Hatch Act](https://substack.com/redirect/d3493227-3709-4f90-a856-d5141f23f50b?j=eyJ1IjoiNHk4ZXUifQ.A6sPtuhiiSsXh5hw3KdEPezOEgDDqjtXdNFyQd9OjKc). The content —telling the officers to be ready to use force against U.S. citizens — was clearly an impeachable offense. In an earlier era, Trump’s incoherent ranting would have paved the way for his immediate removal from office under the [25th Amendment](https://substack.com/redirect/91a5a3ec-1c33-41d2-9248-c5f96286bed2?j=eyJ1IjoiNHk4ZXUifQ.A6sPtuhiiSsXh5hw3KdEPezOEgDDqjtXdNFyQd9OjKc). > > But how did this happen? > > It’s clear that the decision to summon top officers from around the world to receive a lecture about “warrior ethos” from a man who installed a [makeup studio](https://substack.com/redirect/bd51b99b-40e6-4c5c-9a62-383f735fe5d3?j=eyJ1IjoiNHk4ZXUifQ.A6sPtuhiiSsXh5hw3KdEPezOEgDDqjtXdNFyQd9OjKc) at the Pentagon was made by Pete Hegseth. It confirmed publicly what is being whispered within the military, and presumably among our allies and enemies: that Hegseth is an [abject incompetent](https://substack.com/redirect/110bd2b6-2d26-477d-939b-6f0e24269682?j=eyJ1IjoiNHk4ZXUifQ.A6sPtuhiiSsXh5hw3KdEPezOEgDDqjtXdNFyQd9OjKc) who isn’t remotely up to the job. And this toe-curling performance is a reflection of his underlying panic. > … * * * > [@Frodo](#): > > I’ll never understand the rosy view many people here have of military coups. > “The current president is being authoritarian! Let’s replace him with an unelected authoritarian backed with guns instead of votes!” Don’t know where you’re getting the idea that Dopers have a “rosy view” of military coups. \<_scratches head_\> We’re looking at a situation here where civilian leaders (president and secretary of defense) are telling active duty military leaders to be prepared to use force against American citizens. A coup, in this case, would be the rational, level-headed military wresting control of the gummint from insane, misguided, dangerous civilian leaders. There ain’t nuttin’ about this that is even a little bit rosy! 🤨 ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/273 "2025-10-02T14:14:35Z")
The very idea that a military coup can be “the rational, level-headed military wresting control of the gummint from insane, misguided, dangerous civilian leaders.” is the rosy view. You are giving the military the right to decide when the government is “insane, misguided and dangerous”, you may agree with them this time, what will happen when they decide that a liberal government is “insane, misguided and dangerous”? That way lies disaster. ETA: What should the military do, you may ask, when asked to use force against their own citizens? answer: simply refuse. No need for a coup, refuse to obey illegal orders. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/274 "2025-10-02T14:26:44Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#): > > Does this apply to Barack Obama and Ash Carter too? Neither of them were veterans. They didn’t purport otherwise and play at being George C. Scott at the start of “Patton.” ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/275 "2025-10-02T14:44:32Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > (Quoting Krugman) > > > It’s clear that the decision to summon top officers from around the world to receive a lecture about “warrior ethos” from a man who installed a [makeup studio](https://substack.com/redirect/bd51b99b-40e6-4c5c-9a62-383f735fe5d3?j=eyJ1IjoiNHk4ZXUifQ.A6sPtuhiiSsXh5hw3KdEPezOEgDDqjtXdNFyQd9OjKc) at the Pentagon was made by Pete Hegseth. And that then POTUS in turn decided this could not happen w/o him showing up with no clear plan but to just ramble. Because of course he has to headline. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/276 "2025-10-02T14:50:41Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > Totally missing the point. You mean the point Spoons didn’t make in their post? Just no military service =\> military shouldn’t respect them. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/277 "2025-10-02T15:25:58Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > ETA: What should the military do, you may ask, when asked to use force against their own citizens? answer: simply refuse. No need for a coup, refuse to obey illegal orders. The military is still making a decision. Are these orders illegal? Should we obey them anyway? If we’re not obeying that asshole, then who is in charge? I’m not saying that generals wake up every morning and decide if this is the day they’ll coup, but rather that things in the US are moving to a place where the military will be presented with these decisions. Do nothing is definitely a decision. Bomb Sacramento and Springfield are also decisions. It’s not that a military coup is the third act rescue we’ve all been waiting for, but that the decision on how far this goes may ultimately rest with the military. The Supreme Court’s ability to enforce decisions depends on norms and the rule of law; the military’s enforcement does not. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/278 "2025-10-02T15:29:43Z")
Maybe because I’m a military brat and a military widow, I have more faith in the military’s dedication to uphold their oath to preserve and protect American democracy than I do in our so-called commander-in-chief’s. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/279 "2025-10-02T15:35:35Z")
A flaming bowl of yak phlegm has more dedication to preserving American values than Trump does. A sudden transition to military government is still not something that should be desired. ---
**Author:** ![bordelond](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bordelond/32/150_2.png) [@bordelond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bordelond)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2025, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409/280 "2025-10-02T15:44:15Z")
> [@Frodo](#): > > What should the military do, you may ask, when asked to use force against their own citizens? answer: **simply refuse**. No need for a coup, refuse to obey illegal orders. _(my bolding)_ For any here that had that “rosy view” … what you just wrote is exactly what I thought said view was. Someone may have said differently, but if so I missed it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hegseth-calls-all-of-the-top-military-brass-together-for-an-in-person-meeting/1023409.md?page=15)