Not doing so further endangers the Constitution, the American people, and the world, writes Pentagon whistleblower Wes Bryant.
Pete Hegseth’s spectacle last Thursday should be enough to warrant his removal as secretary of defense in and of itself. In a ranting video posted on social media in response to reporting on his potential impeachment, Hegseth once again put his violent extremism, emotional instability, and psychological volatility on full display as he made direct overtures threatening the use of the U.S. military against his political enemies. Or, as he calls them, “the radical Democrats.”
Most of us knew a Hegseth tenure would be catastrophic. Now, a year and a half in, it’s been far worse than I predicted in March last year when I publicly blew the whistle on his unlawful dismantling of the Pentagon’s civilian protection center, where I served as chief of civilian harm assessments, and raised alarms about his ideology and character.
With Pete Hegseth at the helm of the most powerful military in history, under the free rein given to him by Donald Trump, the United States has come to embody far-right fascism and the pursuit of global domination – economically, politically, and militarily.
While Hegseth’s proclaimed mantra has been “Peace through Strength,” the reality played out before the world has been Submission through Tyranny. Under this administration, the United States has sought nothing less than submission – from our adversaries, from our allies, and from the American people, with Hegseth wielding the U.S. military as his primary instrument of enforcement.
Pete Hegseth sounds and acts on the principles of the fascist military despots of history: totalitarian control; extremist nationalism rooted in religious, racial, and gender supremacy; and hyper-militarism. He is an ideologue who has sought to inject white Christian nationalism into the fabric of the armed forces – a worldview that is to pure Christianity what ISIS or the Taliban’s version of Sharia law is to Islam, and that is fundamentally discriminatory against women, minorities, and the LGBTQ+ community. This is evident not only in his hateful rhetoric, but in his erasure of institutional history and his purging of senior military leaders – overwhelmingly made up of women and minorities – who fail his ideological litmus tests.
Hegseth’s extremism is also infused with a juvenile obsession with hyper-masculinity. It is the same phenomenon paralleled across the far right in a movement that many refer to as the MAGA “manosphere,” but amplified. In no small way, Hegseth’s obsession with U.S. troop masculinity is reminiscent of the Aryan movement of the Third Reich. It is a mirror image of Hitler’s efforts to proliferate the archetype of Nazi Germany’s “New German Man.”
His ideology is rooted in dehumanization and an obsession with performative violence. This is even more dangerous when combined with his bloodlust and glorification of war. Under his so-called “lethality doctrine,” he reduces the profound mission of the U.S. military solely to unbridled destruction, demonstrating an open contempt for the laws of war, the Geneva Conventions, and the rules of engagement meant to enforce them. Accordingly, he and his boss, Donald Trump, have sidelined or removed anyone standing in defense of the rule of law – from combatant commanders to senior military lawyers to service chiefs and even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs.
Hegseth talks emphatically about “reviving the warrior ethos” in the U.S. military. But his version is a juvenile fixation on masculinity coupled with undisciplined killing. It is an ethos directly opposed to the one I lived as a U.S. special operator hunting America’s enemies during the so-called “War on Terror.” Restraint, temperance, humanity, honor – these are the virtues that separate the professional warrior from the lawless killer. The U.S. military’s own Law of War manual establishes that humanity and honor form the bedrock of the warfighter’s profession. These are the principles that distinguish us from the adversaries we fight. Hegseth demonstrates none of them.
Upon taking office, Hegseth signaled his intentions by, with the backing of the president, attempting to rebrand the Department of Defense as the “Department of War” along with his own title. War is what he wanted, and war is what he’ll continue to pursue as long as he is in the seat.
In violation of domestic law, international treaties, and the UN Charter, the U.S. military has conducted cross-border raids in Venezuela and abducted its head of state, executed an expanded strike campaign in Yemen that resulted in staggering civilian casualty rates, and waged a reckless war in Iran that inflicted catastrophic civilian harm and committed unequivocal war crimes without any accountability. Simultaneously, this administration continues to carry out extrajudicial killings under the pretext of “narcoterrorism” – a designation unsupported both legally and per military doctrine – while expanding special operations footprints across Latin Americaand Africa.
Equally alarming is what Hegseth is executing at home. He has initiated a dangerous synthesis of federal military force with domestic policing operations. He has directed troop deployments within predominantly Democratic American cities to reinforce immigration operations and intimidate lawful protesters. He has expanded armed troop presence in our nation’s capital and at the southern border. Most chillingly, he has positioned the military for mobilization against American citizens under the Insurrection Act and has overseen the establishment of National Guard “Quick Reaction Forces” across all 50 U.S. states intended for domestic use.
In just over a year, America’s military has become an engine of domestic intimidation and unchecked foreign aggression. America is now embracing the hallmarks of an oppressive police state, carrying out a neo-imperialist crusade of global military domination while threatening civilizational annihilation, and threatening allies while aiding, abetting, and even conspiring with our longest-standing adversaries. Under Pete Hegseth, the United States military has been hijacked to do the bidding of tyranny.
Validating the whistleblowing for which I continue to face retaliation, the Defense Department’s own inspector general determined that Hegseth’s dismantling of civilian protection mechanisms violated federal law and caused systemic failures to safeguard noncombatants. His warmongering has also opened a Pandora’s Box of multiregionalconflict and caused a global energy crisis, disproportionately harmed civilians, alienated strategic allies, and cost American service members their lives – all while depleting readiness, hollowing out critical munitions stockpiles, and putting our vulnerabilities on full display to foreign adversaries.
I have always believed that America’s posture on the world stage should be founded in benevolence and should reflect our highest principles. The U.S. military was established to be not only of the people but for the people and to uphold the sacred ideals that Americans hold dear: to protect the innocent, to defend freedom, to liberate the oppressed, to stand for humanity. Under Hegseth, the U.S. military has been exploited to portray an America that is everything I swore an oath to stand against.
It is time for our nation to remember what we stand for. Pete Hegseth presents a clear and present danger to our democracy, our armed forces, and the world. His extremism, violent volatility, contempt for the rule of law, and his willingness to turn the weapons of war onto the American people make him unfit for command.
He should never have been confirmed, and Congress should have acted long ago.
In September, Republican Rep. Thomas Massie introduced eight articles of impeachment against Pete Hegseth, and just today reintroduced them on the House floor. The constitutional imperative is urgent: Pete Hegseth must be immediately impeached and removed, indicted for war crimes, and held accountable for high crimes against the Constitution and the American people.
If Congress doesn’t have the backbone or the will to defend this Republic, the American people must demand it. And I will be more than willing to lead that charge.
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Wes J. Bryant is a former senior targeting adviser and policy analyst at the Pentagon, where he served as chief of civilian harm assessments. He is a retired master sergeant and special operations tactical air controller in the elite special warfare branch of the U.S. Air Force and co-author of the book, Hunting the Caliphate: America’s War on ISIS and the Dawn of the Strike Cell.
