NEWPORT, Rhode Island—War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced 33 new directives Monday to change how war colleges teach America’s future generals to fight wars.
“For years, our war college mission statements have been choked with gauzy academic platitudes,” Hegseth told nearly 700 students and faculty at the Naval War College. “The word ‘win’ is entirely absent. The word ‘defeat’ does not appear.”
He pointed to the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal as a failure that should be studied.
“How can an institution claim to teach military strategy while refusing to conduct an unsparing autopsy of, for example, the catastrophic withdrawal in Afghanistan?” Hegseth said. “Why did our senior leadership fail to foresee the collapse? Why did our operational plans unravel in days?”
The new directives replace the 80-page written thesis, a centerpiece of a year of war college, with artificial intelligence-assisted wargaming and oral defense boards to test officers under pressure.
Hegseth also took questions from reporters on the Iran war’s role in the GOP’s midterm losses and announced a rare press conference for Tuesday morning to address efforts to impeach him.
Asked about the war’s impact on the elections, Hegseth told the Daily Signal, “The president says he’d do it again. I agree. [It] doesn’t have to be necessarily popular, but it can be necessary.”
Vice President JD Vance has said a pollster told him the war was a top reason Republicans lost Trump voters. Hegseth declined to push back.
“I appreciate the vice president very, very much, and I’m not going to get in the middle of a finger-pointing exercise,” Hegseth said. “He’s been an incredibly substantive member of the team from the very beginning. We all give earnest feedback on everything.”
He also brushed off impeachment efforts. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., filed articles of impeachment against the secretary on Monday afternoon.
A small group of protesters stood outside the college on Monday with signs reading: “IMPEACH HEGSETH.”
“We’re not worried about the noise. This is what I told the troops, too. Don’t worry about the noise,” Hegseth said. “There’s partisan noise all over our town. We’re focused on delivering the president’s agenda, which is the kind of funding our department needs in order to dominate the future, which we’re all concerned about.”
“So, we’ll see you tomorrow morning at the Pentagon,” he concluded.
The War Department directives also promise new classified facilities, building repairs and expanded staff at the war colleges.
Hegseth credited the Naval War College for running two AI-assisted wargames this year, saying that college leaders told him they want to build on that work.
The Naval War College is the oldest war college in the world, opening in 1884. It calls itself the Navy’s “Home of Thought” and has trained more than 24,000 military officers both in the U.S. and internationally. Rear Adm. and Naval War College President Darryl Walker, Capt. and chief of staff Peter Halvorsen, and Command Master Chief Petty Officer and Command Master Abel Griego greeted and met with the secretary upon arrival on Monday.
Hegseth said his trip was “18 months in the making.”
“It’s about you know military academies and it’s about basic training, but at every single echelon, you want to be driving a relentless focus on warfighting, deterring conflict and winning it if you have to fight it,” Hegseth told the Daily Signal in a press gaggle after the event.
The secretary called his remarks a “starting gun,” saying more changes will come as the War Department continues to evaluate its war colleges.
“At every level, we’re putting the war department back on sound footing,” Hegseth said, opening it up to questions about the work of the department.
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[ H/T The Daily Signal ]
