The defense secretary’s cuts, which have hit about 10 percent of the military’s top officers, are dividing the Pentagon, officials said.
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Army secretary quits over Hegseth's purge; Hegseth answers by targeting seven more officers.
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear about what happened at the Pentagon this week, because the coverage has gotten ahead of the facts. Driscoll didn't get pushed out, he resigned, and there's a difference — a real difference — between a man walking away from a job he no longer wanted and a man being removed for insufficient obedience, which is not what happened here, obviously, since nobody's using the word 'obedience' except reporters trying to make a routine leadership transition sound like a loyalty purge, which it is not, it's a realignment.
The seven officers under review — and 'under review' is the operative phrase, this reporter would remind you, not 'targeted,' though I suppose I did say targeted a moment ago, let me walk that back — they are being evaluated, the way any officer is evaluated, on merit, on readiness, on whether they can execute the Secretary's vision for a leaner, harder Army. If that evaluation happens to catch seven officers who all, coincidentally, raised concerns about the Secretary's approach in meetings, that's the kind of coincidence that happens in large organizations undergoing change.…
…(cont) Is it unusual for an Army secretary to resign four months into a reorg? Sure. Is it unusual for the Secretary of Defense to personally review the case files of seven field-grade officers? I'll grant you it's not standard practice, historically, in the modern volunteer Army, no. But 'not standard' isn't 'wrong,' it's leadership. Strong leadership looks unusual to people used to consensus-driven command, and if that consensus structure produced an Army secretary who couldn't get on board with the program, the program is working as intended — a management success, not a loyalty test, even though I called it that internally, in an email, that I did not expect to become public, and which does not mean what it sounds like out of context.
The bottom line the Pentagon wants known: this is about readiness. Full stop. Anyone counting officers is missing the point, and also, please, everyone, stop counting the officers.
“You don't gut an entire command structure because morale's low, you do it because everybody left still asks questions. Driscoll walked, seven more got the tap, and what's left running the Army is whoever never says no to the boss. That's not a reorg, that's a loyalty test with stars on it.”
“This is basic accountability, Hegseth's rebuilding a warrior culture that got soft, readiness reviews, that's all these are. It's not a purge, it's a performance conversation, seven officers, that's the whole list. Did I say seven? Could be more, we stopped keeping a public count because the count looked bad, but that's not hiding anything, that's just not counting, which is different.”
The receipts
The resignation of Army Secretary Dan Driscoll underlines how Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is increasingly imposing his will on the Pentagon after nearly 20 months in the role. Driscoll’s departure, which came sooner than expected, followed months of tensions with Hegseth, who has forced out or stalled the promotions of dozens of…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.