This silliness sprang from a piece in The Atlantic about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's "headlong pursuit of academic mediocrity."
Blob mad. https://t.co/z7h0CU65nc
— cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) August 6, 2025
Eliot A. Cohen argues that Hegseth's military-education reforms "seem designed to ensure fighting men can’t think and thinking men can’t fight."
The Trump administration is right about many of the failures of elite universities, particularly when compared with character-oriented institutions such as the United States Army. Consider the case of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, who was admitted to and graduated from prestigious degree programs at top universities but resigned from the Army National Guard at the lowly rank of major. The Army, unlike Princeton and Harvard, knew a petulant, insecure mediocrity when it saw one.
For whatever reason—perhaps Hegseth had a rough time in freshman calculus or was embarrassed while parsing a difficult passage of Plato—he seems determined to bar academics or anyone who faintly resembles one from contact with the armed forces.
Cohen goes on to mention Hegseth pulling out of the "globalist" Aspen Security Forum, “the mountain retreat for the liberal elite.” “The Department of Defense has no interest in legitimizing an organization that has invited former officials who have been the architects of chaos abroad and failure at home,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson told Just the News.
Meh. Atlantic. I did not bother to read it.
— Ron Snyder (@RonSnyder9681) August 6, 2025
I’ve never heard a Major called “lowly.”
— brad (@the_brads_brad) August 6, 2025
Academics isn't the skill needed in combat
— Radwyn Althor (@radwyn) August 6, 2025
Whatever claims Cohen makes, he inspired a war of words in the comments.
Recommended
It's the only way @infantrydort and his ilk will be able to promote
— Dabber Thoughts (@DabberThoughts) August 6, 2025
name a war England has won since 1905???? without the US having to support the UK??????
— A crybaby’s worst nightmare (@Crybabynightmar) August 7, 2025
Name a war the US has won without UK support.
— Dabber Thoughts (@DabberThoughts) August 7, 2025
That's an easy one.
The Revolutionary War.
— cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) August 7, 2025
LEGEND
— InfantryDort (@infantrydort) August 7, 2025
— Matt Baker (@mbaker) August 7, 2025
— Charles R. Smith🔹 (@softwarnet) August 7, 2025
— mmartillo (@mmartillo124027) August 7, 2025
— Mikel DeFrancesco (@SuccessInMass) August 7, 2025
— Xenophon the Disciplined (@TheXenophon) August 7, 2025
.@cdrsalamander from the top rope! pic.twitter.com/OcYd7svx1s
— InfantryDort (@infantrydort) August 7, 2025
https://t.co/7zfqlUPuJ8 pic.twitter.com/ZX2JurGAhw
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) August 7, 2025
Brutal.
Also...see the War of 1812.
— C/SAR Diver 🇺🇸🐻⚔ (@rstemler1) August 7, 2025
Let’s not forget the War of 1812
— Ragnar Danneskjöld (@GaltsJustice) August 7, 2025
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