Memo to Hegseth: Our military’s problem isn’t only fitness. It’s bad education.



Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivered a bracing address Tuesday to the nation’s generals and admirals on restoring the warrior ethos and “unwoking” the military. His words hit their mark. But if the United States wants real warriors, the work starts with education — and ends with the National Guard.

The collapse of military education

Mr. Secretary, I have taught at the National Defense University and the National Intelligence University since 1992. Over three decades, I have watched the steady decline of military education, especially in American military history.

The rot deepened after 2021, when NIU was shifted from the Defense Department to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The move made little sense, and the result has been worse: a pipeline of “graduates” sent into your War Department who bear the marks of the politicized training they received.

What good are polished bayonets and perfect push-ups if our enemies own the digital battlefield?

Until last year, NIU’s executive vice president, Patricia A. Larsen, pushed a cartoonish form of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Imagine Rube Goldberg and Cruella de Ville designing education policy after a bender, and you get the idea. She maximized DEI, minimized rigor, and turned classrooms into therapy circles for “sensitive” intelligence students — while riding roughshod over her faculty and staff.

The result? A crop of intelligence officers shaped by Larsen’s priorities: officers less like warriors and more like the “less-than-warriors” you warned about. And no amount of push-ups or rifle drills will fix that mindset. Bad intelligence has destroyed the best warfighters before — Pearl Harbor, Chosin Reservoir, Tet. It can happen again.

Citizen soldiers and information war

If you want a different kind of warrior, look to the citizen soldier. Men like Gen. Dan Caine, the current chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Or like yourself.

Citizen soldiers carry the heart and soul of warriors into the non-kinetic fight: information warfare. China fields armies of hackers and propagandists who corrupt American culture, flood social media with poison, and wage psychological war around the clock. They don’t need to fire a shot to weaken us.

What good are polished bayonets and perfect push-ups if our enemy — say, China — owns the digital battlefield? Unlike the kinetic fight, information war shifts daily. By the time the Pentagon recognizes a problem, builds a school, and launches a course, the enemy has already moved on.

That’s where the Guard excels. Citizen soldiers live in this world every day — coding, marketing, designing, working AI prompts and hardware. They bring practical knowledge the active-duty military cannot match.

I know this firsthand. Years ago, I organized and trained an experimental National Guard unit for the Pentagon. In their world, physical fitness matters less than mental agility. Discipline, imagination, and technical mastery were the weapons they carried. And they were lethal.

RELATED: Hegseth restores warrior ethos after years of woke Pentagon rot

Photo courtesy of Chuck de Caro

Back to the Roman model

The founders understood the power of the citizen soldier because they themselves defeated the world’s strongest army with farmhands who knew terrain, seasons, and the hunt. Today’s equivalent may be a Guardsman in sunglasses, leaning against a Corvette, laptop and phone in hand — ready to beat Beijing in the digital fight.

As you purge the woke and the unfit, Mr. Secretary, think about a new standard for an old class: the citizen soldier.

You like to quote the Romans. Let me remind you of Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the farmer who left his plow to lead Rome to victory, then refused power and returned home. He wasn’t just a warrior. He was a victor.

That’s the model America needs now. Not just warriors — but victors who know when to fight, when to win, and when to go home. The Roman way. The American way.

More Than 200 Retired Admirals And Generals Endorse Trump

Flag Officers 4 America endorsement letter warns of the real threat a Harris-Walz administration would bring to the security of the republic.

124 retired generals and admirals say US in 'deep peril' under Biden, warn of his 'mental' condition



More than 120 retired generals and admirals have signed a letter saying that the U.S. is in "deep peril" under the leadership of President Joe Biden, specifically warning that the mental condition of the nation's oldest commander in chief "cannot be ignored."

What are the details?

The letter was released by Flag Officers 4 America, and was signed by 124 retired "military officers entitled to carry a flag indicating their rank," The Daily Caller noted.

It begins, "Our Nation is in deep peril. We are in a fight for our survival as a Constitutional Republic like no other time since our founding in 1776. The conflict is between supporters of Socialism and Marxism vs. supporters of Constitutional freedom and liberty."

The retired military leaders went on to say that "without fair and honest elections that accurately reflect the 'will of the people' our Constitutional Republic is lost," saying that "aside from the election, the Current Administration has launched a full-blown assault on our Constitutional rights in a dictatorial manner, bypassing the Congress, with more than 50 Executive Orders quickly signed."

At the end of a long list of bullet points citing "additional national security issues and actions," Flag Officers 4 America wrote:

"The mental and physical condition of the Commander in Chief cannot be ignored. He must be able to quickly make accurate national security decisions involving life and limb anywhere, day or night. Recent Democrat leadership's inquiries about nuclear code procedures sends a dangerous national security signal to nuclear armed adversaries, raising the question about who is in charge. We must always have an unquestionable chain of command."

The officials ended the letter with a call for action, urging "all citizens to get involved now at the local, state and/or national level to elect political representatives who will act to Save America, our Constitutional Republic, and hold those currently in office accountable," concluding, "The 'will of the people' must be heard and followed."

Biden, 78, is the oldest American president to ever be elected, and he faced questions from opponents during both the Democratic primary and the general election over his mental fitness for office.

A White House spokesperson told People magazine on Wednesday that Biden "is planning to have a checkup later this year, and the results will be made public."

The outlet noted that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters last week that the administration "will be transparent" to reporters about the results of Biden's first physical when it happens.

People further reported that "Biden similarly promised during the 2020 campaign to be 'totally transparent in terms of my health.'"