PETE HEGSETH OFFENSE AT THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE By Tom Gallagher
Isn’ t the most remarkable— and least remarked-upon— aspect of the Pete Hegseth Defense Department reality show the fact that no one has appeared worried that the nation’ s security might actually be threatened by this? That no one has seemed particularly concerned about any danger resulting from the vast U. S. military arsenal ostensibly being placed in the hands of someone who had obviously not read the job manual? But then why would they? Did anyone seriously think China’ s Ministry of State Security was dashing off memos advising the country’ s leaders to invade the United States because control of its armed forces had somehow fallen into inept hands? Or that something like that was going on in Russia … or Denmark … or Canada … or any other of our enemies, old or new?
Apparently not. Why? Well, at recent count, the U. S. was in possession of a fleet of 299 deployable combat vessels, 3,748 nuclear warheads, 5,500 military aircraft, 13,000 drones, and 2,079,142 military personnel. All of this comes with highly detailed operational plans for situations involving an actual attack on the nation. But no one seemed to think that what Hegseth was spending his time on had much, if anything, to do with that eventuality. From the point of view of the nation’ s legitimate security, that’ s a good thing. But it raises the question of what was Hegseth on about, anyhow?
The story that brought the question of the Trump foreign policy team’ s competence to the fore has little to do with the matter of American national defense. What it’ s really about is the unauthorized, global use of American military force. The few Americans whose well-being were plausibly threatened by Hegseth’ s now infamous sharing of the details of upcoming bombing missions— with his wife, brother, lawyer, as well as the editor of The Atlantic— were the pilots of those missions.
The object of this ongoing bombing campaign— which the administration says has struck a thousand targets— is the Yemen rebel group called the Houthis, an organization allied with Iran and militarily opposed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The recent U. S. attacks came in response to a resumption of Houthi efforts to block Israeli shipping in the Arabian Gulf that followed upon Israel’ s breaking of its cease-fire agreement with Hamas, along with its blocking of humanitarian aid to Gaza. In response to the renewed U. S. assault, the Houthis have attacked the U. S. S. Harry S. Truman, the aircraft carrier which then-President Joe Biden deployed to the Gulf last December as a base for the anti-Houthi airstrikes that he had ordered.
Now, although it may seem quaint to mention such technicalities as the law in relation to the routine U. S. bombing of another nation, the truth of the matter is that— whether one considers bombing the Houthis to free up Arabian Gulf shipping a good idea, or whether one doesn’ t— we are simply not at war either with the government of Yemen or with the Houthis trying to supplant it. Nor has Congress authorized the use of force there, in lieu of a declaration of war.
If you have trouble recalling Congress declaring war, that’ s because you probably weren’ t alive in 1942, the last time it did so( against Bulgaria, Hungary, and Rumania.) The wars in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan? No declaration of war deemed necessary. And while the current Republican-controlled Congress may be distinguishing itself for new depths of subservience, generally
54 The Trial Lawyer