What You Didn't Hear At Pete's Confirmation Hearing | The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe

Had I known that Pete Hegseth would be the next Secretary of Defense when I interviewed him last year, I might have taken a more pointed approach to our conversation. For instance, I might have pointed out that in 2023, the RAND Corporation issued a report on U.S. military “power and influence,” that opened like this: “The U.S. defense strategy and posture have become insolvent. The tasks that the nation expects its military forces and other elements of national power to do internationally exceed the means that are available to accomplish those tasks.”

Yikes.

After getting his thoughts on that, I might have quoted Mark Rutte, the secretary general of NATO, who said, “the West is not prepared for the challenges that will come over the next five years and that it’s time to “shift to a wartime mind-set.” And Kori Schake, who directs foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute. “While World War III has not begun, “a world war is approaching.”

Double yikes!

As I understand it, (and I’m not a journalist or an expert by any means,) our defense strategy has been based on the assumption that we will have to fight just one war at a time. But the ever-deepening relationships between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea make the possibility of a coordinated attack a lot more likely, which means Pete might be overseeing three or four regional wars simultaneously. I would love to hear how he would prepare for that scenario, along with his take on China’s shipbuilding industry, which now has 230 times more capacity than that of the United States.

Triple yikes!

I also have many questions about the enormous amphibious landing craft that was built to facilitate the invasion of Taiwan, and their latest microwave weapon that has the intensity of a nuclear explosion and the ability to destroy the electronic components of our critical weapons systems. According to H.R. McMaster, the former national security adviser, “I think China is laying the groundwork for a first-strike nuclear capability against the United States.”

Yikes, yikes, yikes, and yikes!!!

This will answer none of those questions, and I’m sorry about that. To be honest, I expected somebody in Congress to raise these issues during the confirmation hearing, but no one did, on either side. Pity. The D’s and R’s were both focused on less pressing issues, and that’s…disappointing. All I can offer in the way of further insight into the man who will likely run our military, is the conversation we had back in July, shortly after his book was published. This clip convinced me that his love for this country is genuine. Is it enough to get us safely through a world that seems more dangerous than ever?

I guess we’ll find out...

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