“A ‘Yes man’ is a dangerous man. He is a menace. He will go very far. He can become a minister, a secretary or a Field Marshal but he can never become a leader, nor ever be respected. He will be used by his superiors, disliked by his colleagues and despised by his subordinates. So discard the ‘Yes man’.” - Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw
I've never hidden my dislike and concern over Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. And the reason is simple: the danger of having “yes men” running the show in the military-because history is full of proof that when leaders just nod along and suck up to the boss, people die and wars get lost. And now, with Pete Hegseth getting handed the keys to the Pentagon, we’re staring down the barrel of that same old disaster.
Look, this isn’t just some abstract problem. It’s happened before, and it’s ugly every time. Take the Korean War, for example. MacArthur’s intelligence guy, Willoughby, was the ultimate brown-noser. He fed MacArthur exactly what he wanted to hear, ignored all the warnings about the Chinese, and then boom-our troops got ambushed and had to run for their lives. It was a total shitshow, and it happened because nobody had the guts to say, “Hey, boss, you’re wrong.”
Or look at the fall of Singapore in World War II. The British brass were surrounded by guys who just saluted and kept their mouths shut, even when the whole plan was falling apart. The Japanese rolled in, and in no time, the Brits surrendered-80,000 troops, just like that. All because nobody wanted to rock the boat.
And don’t forget France in 1940. The Germans blitzed through Sedan because the French high command was packed with yes men who were too scared to tell their superiors the truth about how screwed they were. Result? France collapsed in a matter of weeks. That’s what happens when you put ass-kissers in charge.
Now here comes Pete Hegseth, a guy whose main qualification seems to be that he says the right things on TV and knows how to play politics. Don’t get me wrong-he served, but he was a junior officer, not some battle-hardened general or a master strategist. He’s never run anything close to the size or complexity of the Pentagon. Hell, he’s never even managed a big budget or dealt with the kind of global crises that land on the Secretary of Defense’s desk every day.
So why is he in charge? Simple: he’s loyal to the right people and says what they want to hear. That’s it. He’s a political pick, not a professional one. And it shows. The Pentagon under Hegseth has been a circus-infighting, leaks, drama, and way too much time spent mugging for the cameras instead of actually leading. He’s more interested in his next Fox News hit than in making the hard calls or listening to the folks who know what they’re talking about.
Let’s be honest: putting a yes man like Hegseth in charge of the military is a recipe for disaster. It sends the message that sucking up matters more than knowing your shit. And when the next crisis hits, do you really want a guy at the top who’s never been tested and is more worried about pleasing his boss than protecting the troops? We’ve seen how that ends, and it’s never good.
The military needs leaders with backbone, not bootlickers. If we don’t learn from the past, we’re just setting ourselves up to repeat the same old mistakes-with even higher stakes.
In times like this, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.
