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I thought his primary qualification for being the secretary of defence was: —— Being a Major in the Minnesota Army National Guard. And the following Overseas
by nailer 2y ago
I thought his primary qualification for being the secretary of defence was:
——
Being a Major in the Minnesota Army National Guard.
And the following Overseas deployments:
- Guantanamo Bay (2004-2005): He served as a second lieutenant with a security platoon, guarding detainees.
- Iraq (2005-2006): He deployed with the 3rd Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division, serving as an infantry platoon leader in Baghdad and later as a civil-military operations officer in Samarra.
- Afghanistan (2011-2012): He served as a captain and senior counterinsurgency instructor at the Counterinsurgency Training Center in Kabul.
Awards
Hegseth earned two Bronze Star Medals for his service in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a Combat Infantryman Badge, which recognizes soldiers who have directly engaged in ground combat. He also received two Army Commendation Medals and the National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Service Star, along with Expert Infantryman and Combat Infantryman badges.
His military career spanned from 2002 to 2021, including active duty and time in the Individual Ready Reserve.
In addition to his military service, Hegseth holds a Bachelor of Arts in Politics from Princeton University and a Master of Public Policy from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, which complement his practical experience with academic credentials relevant to leadership and policy.
———-
You can argue he’s good at the job or bad at the job.
I would have no issue if you said he was completely incompetent.
But saying that hs a ‘primary qualification is being a yes man’ is a ridiculous laughable argument.
- dagw 2y agoYou do not seriously believe that he got hired based solely or even primarily on that, let's face it, quite mediocre military service resume.
- ethbr1 2y agoI realize much has been made of his military service. If he was the only reserve O-4 with combat experience we could find to serve as Secretary of Defense, then yes, that would be a primary qualification. Given the rank, that's ridiculous. Ergo his primary qualification is something else.
- nailer 2y agoA decent military record is table stakes, if he did not have a reasonable military record at all he would not have the position - so that’s his primary qualification. People that were close to the administration that didn’t have a military record would not have been eligible for the job. Not you, but many others were arguing at the time that his primary qualification was ‘being a Fox News anchor’, which is infuriating. It’s not - it’s his military service. There are many people that are Fox News anchors, none of them were eligible for the job because they do not have a military record. I have no argument with claiming he won the job because of his connections.
- sorcerer-mar 2y agoIt's actually not table stakes nor a matter of eligibility. We've had several SecDefs, all dramatically more competent than Hegseth, who did not have any military experience.
- ethbr1 2y agoRecently, from review: William J. Perry (94-97, 2+5yr Army) William Cohen (97-01) Robert Gates (06-11, 2yr AF) Leon Panetta (11-13, 2yr Army) Chuck Hagel (13-15, 1yr Army)* Ash Carter (15-17) * To be fair, Hagel's year was volunteering to be drafted and sent to Vietnam as an infantry squad leader
- vitus 2y ago> We've had several SecDefs, all dramatically more competent than Hegseth, who did not have any military experience. Who do you have in mind? Carter, Cohen, and Cheney were the only confirmed secretaries from the past 40 years who fit "no military experience". There are a handful of recent secretaries with < 5 years of military experience who did not even reach the rank of Captain (e.g. Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, Panetta, Perry). To be clear: I agree with you that military experience is not really a qualification for the job, unless the individual has achieved high enough rank (i.e. General) to be involved in strategic planning. And certainly most secretaries of defense don't have that (Austin and Mattis are quite rare on that front, doubly so because they needed congressional waivers to serve in the position while still being active-duty military).
- sorcerer-mar 2y agoHe was on Fox being a yes man with some military experience Trump saw him and liked him on TV Trump made him SecDef
- nailer 2y agoThe comment you were replying to already addressed this point.
- sorcerer-mar 2y agoA reasonable definition of "primary qualification" is that feature which most significantly narrows the set of candidates under consideration. There are hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people with a similar or greater military record. There are probably less than a dozen who have a clearer record of being a yes-man (by virtue of very few people being on TV to begin with, and even fewer willing to rhetorically fellate POTUS unconditionally) You intersect the two and you get Hegseth, but the criterion that did the heavy lifting is absolutely the yes-man one.
- nailer 2y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- jmull 2y agoYou're saying that pretty much any career officer is qualified to be secretary of defense? Even "completely incompetent" ones (your words)? "...a ridiculous laughable argument" Right back at you.
- nailer 2y agoNo. I’m stating that ‘being a yes man’ is not this man’s primary qualification. The comment you are relying to mentions this.