Senior Army leadership was caught off guard by Thursday’s abrupt announcement, a US official told CNN — learning of George’s forced departure along with the rest of the Defense Department, when it was announced publicly.
George found out in a phone call from Hegseth on Thursday while he was in a meeting, a second US official said. He later spoke to his staff in-person about the announcement and his staff was “very stoic” when receiving the news, the official said.
Hegseth’s move comes a day after Donald Trump’s address to the nation on the Iran war. In the speech, Trump signaled the US will intensify strikes on Iran, after earlier suggesting the US could be done with the war within two to three weeks.
This is his chance to go to the media against this war. Will he have the courage to? I doubt it.
One of the hopeful things about the Trump administration is that, as fascists go, they’re pretty shit at militarism.
Get ready for a military coup in November to dissolve Congress or before the 2028 elections to keep Trump in power.
I’m going to guess this guy said sending waves of soldiers to die in a land invasion would be a bad idea.
I mean, just look at Russia’s losses in Ukraine. A land invasion with so little support is a bad idea.
I agree with the sentiment, but it isn’t close to the same. Russia mobilized 100,000 troops to gather at the Ukraine border in 2020 before Biden became president. Trump has sent an additional 2,400 troops to the Iran area after starting the war. The meat grinder effect won’t work the same. Russia loses more troops a day sometimes than the U.S. has deployed. That’s why he doesn’t care. He knows he can always compare to Russia/Ukraine and “look good” while it is unfathomably stupid for him to do so.
Also Russia did have the advantage of surprise. No such luck for the poor sods that have to defend the pedo in chiefs honor by attacking head first into a prepared defense.
Well, they don’t need to. If someone says “hey, go commit a warcrime for me” it’s really your duty to say “no, fuck off.”
That’s how it’s suposed to be. But I feel that the current admin will boot them and try to deny their pensions and benefits.
Is the alternative then to bomb children?
“Sorry kids, I was worried I’d lose my pension so you have to lose your lives” isn’t much of an excuse.
The meat grinder effect won’t work the same.
That’s because Russia has actually seized and attempts to hold Ukrainian territory. If idiot Trump’s idea is to drive the Iranians out of Kharg island and other places adjacent to the strait, it’ll escalate to the same kind of high-casualty quagmire.
He knows he can always compare to Russia/Ukraine
What he knows is almost certainly less than most people assume.
As the Army chief, George has worked closely with Army Secretary Dan Driscoll — a senior official close to the White House whom Hegseth has perceived as a threat and at times had a contentious relationship with.
(…)
George, a career infantry officer, commissioned out of the US Military Academy at West Point in 1988. He has served as the chief of staff since September 2023; he previously commanded I Corps at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, and went on to serve as the senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin during the Biden administration.
While the job of senior military assistant to the defense secretary is often one considered to be apolitical and a role given to the best of the best of military officers, George’s proximity to Austin has been considered a mark against him to Hegseth and his circle.
It’s a safe bet that he was fired “because he’s a democrat”.
Once again I’m aghast at how much power sitting politicians in the USA have. It’s all top-down. Where’s the democracy, accountability, rule of law?
Where’s the democracy, accountability, rule of law?
That’s supposed to be Congress and the Supreme Court, but both are thoroughly compromised. This will happen to insert your favorite democracy here if their local elites don’t give something to the masses; this didn’t happen because America’s system is exceptionally vulnerable.
this didn’t happen because America’s system is exceptionally vulnerable.
Depends on how you mean that; America’s system has been flawed long before even Trump1.0. It all contributed to the shitshow we’re now experiencing.
And it’s not even “the law is good, the people in power are bad”. Over decades, even centuries, people in power have poked holes into the system, codified as law. See e.g. Patriot Act.
True, but such flaws (either the same or different ones) also exist in—or are being carved into—the law in European systems (see: chat control). Europeans are also in general more nationalist than Americans since they actually live in nation states, making them in general more susceptible to rightwing spacegoating. The specific events might differ, but the mechanism is the same.
What’s with the whataboutism?
But OK, let’s entertain it:
It’s not a 1:1 comparison. Things are much, much worse in the USA.
That’s not my point; I’m trying to counter the common European/Anglophone idea that the current state of America is due to unique American flaws and not the end result of a West-wide trend due to greedy, powerful and unresponsive elites. My point is therefore that, because the underlying problem and many catslysts are the same, people living in these countries have to do something about their greedy, powerful and unresponsive elites if they don’t want to go fascist like America. America was also much better ten years ago, but it rapidly got worse because the underlying conditions made it inevitable.
That’s not your point either? By now I have to call this Shifting Goalposts. And won’t take your arguments at face value anymore. Sorry, America is fucked up beyond repair, and that doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is too. Q.e.d.
It’s a safe bet that he was fired “because he’s a democrat”.
There’s not much evidence that he is. It sounds more like retaliation for talking back to Hegseth.
In crapitalist America, secretary fires you.
