"Takeaways from Hegseth’s press conference this morning:
1. There is no strategic goal. He said this isn’t about 'regime change' despite the President saying otherwise, repeatedly. That means they can't explain how all of this makes Americans safer in the end.
2. He said 'This will end on the President’s choosing,' and provided no real timeline. That reinforces that there is no plan and no strategic goal, just a 79 year old man who spends too much time in a ballroom in Florida deciding when to stop this.
3. Hegseth suggested the Commander-in-Chief is setting the operational tempo — which is really high right now, putting a lot of stress on our troops and systems. Donald Trump, despite what he may believe, doesn’t have the capacity to make these types of operational decisions that have real consequences for commanders and servicemembers.
4. And finally, going into a conflict of this scale with no strategy and a wishy-washy end state often leads to a less than optimal outcome, starting with the potential for continued escalation and a long, bloody conflict. Americans want leaders who focus on improving their lives, not starting more wars.
It’s clear to me and everyone else who is paying attention that this President needs to be reined in, but that’s not going to come from this Secretary of Defense, who has tough sounding talking points but little else to offer the American people or our servicemembers."
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