Photo: Collected
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken an initiative for a major shake-up in the top military leadership of the country’s armed forces. He has decided to reduce the number of general and admiral posts in the army, navy and air force by 20 per cent. A Pentagon official recently confirmed that Hegseth will formally announce this tough decision in a ‘State of the Force’ address to junior officers and soldiers at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia.
About 800 top-tier general and flag officer posts are going to be affected by this new directive. Although the defence department had earlier spoken of a plan to cut these posts by 10 per cent, that rate has been doubled in the new order. The final deadline for fully implementing the process has been set at 1 January 2027. It is mainly generals of one-star rank or higher and navy officers of equivalent rank who will come under these cuts and abolition of posts.
Since Donald Trump took office as president of the United States, one dismissal and reshuffle after another has been taking place at the top military level. In coordination with Defence Secretary Hegseth, the administration has already dismissed or sent into retirement more than two dozen high-ranking military officers. The list of those dismissed includes the only two women generals of four-star rank and top figures such as army chief General Randy George. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll has also resigned recently following policy disputes. According to US media outlets, after these successive dismissals and suspensions of promotions, this new decision is going to put the professional careers of hundreds of current and rising military officers in extreme uncertainty.
Arguing in favour of the decision, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the step is meant to make the military leadership more dynamic, effective and well-organised by reducing bureaucratic complexity. Besides freeing the forces from excessive structural pressure, he is also stressing the introduction of a single standard for assessing physical fitness.
However, the opposition political camp has expressed intense anger and concern at such a unilateral move by the Pentagon. Jack Reed, the senior Democratic senator on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that at a time when the US military is carrying out various complex and risky operations around the world, this decision to abruptly scrap top leadership is enough to alarm ordinary citizens. He also thinks it was necessary to consult Congress before taking such a big decision.
Source: Al Jazeera
