Hegseth Delivers ‘Peace Through Strength Initiative’ Message to Pentagon

Bless his heart, and his little tin soldiers collection, our brave and erstwhile Secretary of Defense announced that keeping the peace requires bombing the shit out of people.

Here is his heartwarming speech to the Pentagon he leads:

“It is the privilege of a lifetime to lead the warriors of the Department of Defense, under the leadership of our Commander in Chief Donald J. Trump. We will put America First, and we will never back down. The President gave us a clear mission: achieve Peace through Strength. We will do this in three ways — by restoring the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, and reestablishing deterrence.

· We will revive the warrior ethos and restore trust in our military. We are American warriors. We will defend our country. Our standards will be high, uncompromising, and clear. The strength of our military is our unity and our shared purpose.

· We will rebuild our military by matching threats to capabilities. This means reviving our defense industrial base, reforming our acquisition process, passing a financial audit, and rapidly fielding emerging technologies. We will remain the strongest and most lethal force in the world.

· We will reestablish deterrence by defending our homeland — on the ground and in the sky. We will work with allies and partners to deter aggression in the Indo-Pacific by Communist China, as well as supporting the President's priority to end wars responsibly and reorient to key threats. We will stand by our allies — and our enemies are on notice.

All of this will be done with a focus on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards, and readiness. I have committed my life to warfighters and their families. Just as my fellow soldiers had my back on the battlefield, know that I will always have your back. We serve together at a dangerous time. Our enemies will neither rest nor relent. And neither will we. We will stand shoulder to shoulder to meet the urgency of this moment.”

That’s a hell of a lot of backs to cover, Pete, seeing that we have over 1.3 million active-duty members stationed at home and abroad, while managing over 4,790 military sites worldwide, covering 27 million acres.

Pete finishes up with, “Like each of you, I love my country and swore an oath to defend the Constitution. We will do that each and every day, as one team. Together we will accomplish the President's mission to deter war, and if necessary, defeat and destroy our enemies. Godspeed!”

Wow, Pete. I’m a little foggy on just how all this restoring of the warrior ethos, rebuilding our military, and reestablishing deterrence defends the Constitution, but I’m willing to be enlightened.

The last time I checked, the greatest threats to our Constitution appeared to be the Supreme Court of the United States and our Commander in Chief, but hey, I’m pretty much a bystander with a pen, instead of n the front line with an AK-47.

Restoring our warrior ethos may put large portions of the world a bit on edge but, what the hell, if they object we can always hit them with a punishing tariff until they fold.

You seem to have forgotten to mention tariffs in your mission to defeat and destroy our enemies.

As Obi-Wan Kenobi, that famous American patriot, always put it, “May the Force be with you.”