Hegseth sparks fears as he moves to ax generals [View all]
Source: The Hill
05/10/25 5:00 PM ET
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s move to ax the size of the U.S. military’s top ranks has triggered concerns of a political purge. Hegseth, who on Monday directed significant cuts to the U.S. military’s senior-most positions, has already fired several top leaders with no explanation. His latest plan could now eliminate roughly 100 generals and admirals, which he said was necessary to remove “redundant force structure” and streamline Pentagon bureaucracy.
But while it is true America’s forces are brass-heavy — with 37 four-star generals and admirals and about 816 officers with one-star and above — experts worry any move to slash those numbers will be done indiscriminately and without care for the institutional knowledge at the top that could be lost.
“We’re very concerned, especially with this administration, that this could easily turn into political testing or otherwise clearing out the ranks for political reasons,” said Greg Williams, the director of defense information at the nonprofit watchdog Project on Government Oversight.
“When a new administration comes in and makes a lot of changes, especially at the very top of the military ranks, especially for what are arguably very political reasons — are these officers ‘woke or or not?’ — that raises the concern that we’re undermining that nonpartisan tradition,” he added.
Read more: https://thehill.com/policy/defense/5293050-defense-secretary-hegseth-fires-top-leaders/
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