Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, by Joe Rosenthal of the Associated Press.
Column By John Young
It doesn’t matter what Pete Hegseth does from here to eternity.
He can’t undo this.
His Defense Department had Jackie Robinson’s story scrubbed from a department web page.
America not being a closed society — not yet, anyway — we found out about the stupid stunt.
So — uh-oh! – DOD scrambled to undo it.
More stupidity: removal of a photo of the iconic flag-raising on Iwo Jima on another DOD web page.
Based on search-and-destroy orders against words and images conveying “discriminatory equity ideology,” the latter was removed because of its linkage to the famed flag-raising Navajo code-talker PFC. Ira Hayes.
Well, it’s back online, OK? So, does the DOD get a pass?
Not a chance. What you did, you did, Mr. Secretary. It was hateful.
It’s just like a certain racist tattoo that adorns your bicep, the significance of which you have downplayed. You could blast it. You could blot it. It’s the thought that counts.
More about Hegseth’s body markings in a moment. For now:
What this administration believes it won with a 1.5 percent popular vote margin in November was a mandate for a putsch. That’s German for a takeover – smashing deeply rooted institutions, with their associated ideas tossed out to the glass shards on the street below
“Blow up everything.” That’s what voters said. Right?
No, they didn’t, although too many voters did say this: “Lie to us.”
A trademark of a putsch is secretive plans for a takeover. With each day, it becomes clearer that this president seeks to act out every clause and semicolon of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, something he disavowed on the campaign trail.
Job 1 in a putsch for previous totalitarian takeovers – be they Nazis, Maoists, Stalinists, and more – was the bleaching of public discourse.
Observe this president’s attempts to shut out and marginalize established media organizations like the Associated Press and Reuters. Meanwhile, he relies on propaganda operations, willing to lie to stay in his graces.
Observe his orders to have certain words removed entirely from the government’s lexicon.
One feature of a putsch is the strategic “otherism” a totalitarian regime employs to stir support and allegiance.
In Nazi Germany, it was the Jews, the gypsies, the homosexuals.
The ideologues who have risen to power in Washington are appealing to aggrieved white voters about the threat posed by immigrants, of the injustice posed by minorities awarded leadership posts, and of employment based, they say, not on merit but on race or gender.
And then there’s the supposed threat posed by the tiny sliver of Americans who, born into bodies that don’t match their identities, choose a daunting transition.
To enter this fray, few would match the “qualifications” of the new secretary of defense – someone suited to wage culture war — not the real thing. No way.
Pete Hegseth sees an enemy around every corner except among a trove of totalitarians his boss adores. Indeed, Hegseth has adorned himself for a holy war with a special tattoo.
It is well-known as a white supremacist symbol. Worn by groups like the Proud Boys and Three Percenters, it features the words “Deus vult” (Latin for “God wills it”) a battle cry from the Crusades, which rank No. 2 behind the Holocaust on the top 10 of all horrors done in Jesus’ name.
Hegseth has been outspoken in bashing Muslims, opposing women in combat, and, in general, pushing for a military that “elevates people that look and think like him,” according to a Politico profile.
Sure enough, among the first things that happened in this administration’s ascension was the firing of Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the second Black man to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Naval Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman to serve on the Joint Chiefs.
Many wondered how in the world Hegseth, who would be nothing were it not for his job as a right-wing talker on cable, could command America’s military. He can’t. What he can do is carry out the wishes of a bigoted commander-in-chief with a god complex.
Deus vult!
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email him at jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
