The highest male standards

Pete Hegseth is the US Secretary of Defense (now renamed the War Department), and one of the most striking figures among the MAGA fauna occupying the top positions in the Trump administration. Hegseth is forty-five years old, which is apparently the average age of a new generation of global spooks, a former television host, and the author of two books titled American Crusade and The war of the warriors, where he expands on his ultra-nationalist, ultra-Catholic, anti-feminist, anti-environmentalist, and strongly warmongering and militaristic ideology: he is the executor of the militarization of American cities governed by Democrats, a not-so-subtle threat of civil war. According to Hegseth, the US is the greatest and most glorious nation that has ever existed in the world (he says this because he doesn't know Spain) and is destined to dominate it. For this to be the case, the US must always be prepared to wage war, and must always have the best soldiers ready, ready to kill and die for the homeland.

This was the message Hegseth conveyed on Tuesday at a meeting at the Quantico military base in Virginia with US generals deployed around the world, who had been summoned there with a secrecy that had given rise to all kinds of rumors (about war, naturally). In the end, it turned out that Hegseth had brought the entire high command there just to deliver an exalted harangue (you can read the report ofAntonia Crespi Ferrer in this newspaper), in which Hegseth insisted to the generals on the need to be prepared for a war, or for many wars, which judging by his tone seemed imminent. He also ruthlessly attacked pacifism and the ideology woke And, above all, against the incorporation of women into military life. No women. No weak men, either. The US Army must be made up only of very manly men, tough, strong, hairless, and fat-free. Hegseth specified this last point emphatically: he is disgusted by the sight of "beards" among the troops, and he is also shocked to see soldiers who are fat. Out with bellies and out with beards: Hegseth wants to see formations of muscular, toned, clean-shaven, and hairless alpha males. What a rascal. "We're bringing back the highest masculine standards," he shouted at Quantico.

The high secretary's speech was so exalted that it ended up having a touch of involuntary self-caricature. This often happens to Hegseth, who, despite having studied at Princeton, is not exactly known for his brilliance. A few days ago, he tried to play in front of the cameras with a skateboarding (a skateboard), which bounced off him and hit him in the groin. In other words, he hit the hell out of a skateboard and made a ridiculous viral act that has become the laughingstock of the entire world. This character is the one who lectures generals about achieving peace through war (peace through strength), like a fairground Sun Tzu. When power is in the hands of fools and fanatics, the danger is truly great.