Hush, Queen

“…So on September 30, Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned hundreds of generals and admirals to Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia. The brass flew in from around the world, and sat as still and stone-faced as buck privates at the final formation of boot camp. Hegseth lectured them—about standards. He wants them to enforce grooming standards again: “no more beards, long hair, superficial expression.” He wants them to raise standards for combat arms units. And he wants standards for physical fitness that are tough, uniform, and gender neutral.

“If not, they’re not standards,” Hegseth said. “They’re just suggestions, suggestions that get our sons and daughters killed.” Most importantly, Hegseth said he wants a culture where leaders enforce standards. No more “walking on eggshells” for fear of retribution from disgruntled troops. No more anonymous complaints undermining a leader’s authority. “These directives are designed to take the monkey off your back and put you, the leadership, back in the driver’s seat,” Hegseth said. “Move out with urgency because we have your back. I have your back, and the commander in chief has your back.”

It was a back-to-basics speech, and exactly what officers needed to hear from Hegseth and President Trump. “Most of [the speech] was stuff we say over a beer at the O Club,” said a retired Marine general.

Which made the speech unacceptable to Peggy Noonan, an opinion columnist for the Wall Street Journal. From her perch on the Upper East Side, the old songbird of a bygone political era splattered on Hegseth’s head, declaring that military leadership has little to do with standards for fitness or combat readiness. She whined that Hegseth was a “drama queen” who watched “‘Platoon’ too much as a child.” Her column was full of bile and class prejudice. Most of her words could have been written by Paul Krugman or Graydon Carter, pundits from the political Left who despise Trump and his cabinet as much for their politics as who they represent: real America.

Out in real America, people live with the consequences of reckless choices and ill-conceived plans hatched in places like California, New York, and Washington, DC. People see the decline in standards for the military but also in other segments of American society. In standards for education. In standards for customer service. In standards for public behavior. In standards for family life. In standards for religious leadership. Wherever progressives have found a standard, they have worked tirelessly to lower it – or negate it entirely…”