Army vet's memo to Senator Tillis: This is all your fault

Yahoo

27-03-2025

U.S. Senator Thom Tillis (left) and Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth (right) (Hegseth photo credit:. Tillis photo via Senate.gov)
Earlier this year, I penned an essay for NC Newsline entitled 'Trump cabinet nominee Pete Hegseth is completely unfit to lead.'
I wish I had been wrong. But given the stunning and maddening revelations about the now infamous Signal chat in which Secretary Hegseth discussed operational attack plans on the Houthi rebel group in Yemen, the accuracy of the piece has been confirmed faster than even I had imagined.
The main point of the essay was that Hegseth was arguably the least qualified cabinet secretary nominee in U.S. history, and that if he was confirmed it could have real and dangerous consequences for our troops in the field and for our country's national security. At the time, I was pleading with North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis and his colleagues to take their job of voting on Hegseth's nomination seriously and to recognize that such a character should never be allowed anywhere near a position of authority in the Pentagon. I have to confess though that I didn't think that Hegseth would prove me right so quickly and in such an egregious way.
The remarkable revelation that Secretary Hegseth and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz inadvertently invited journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg from The Atlantic, to a text chain that also included Director of National Intelligence Chief Tulsi Gabbard and Vice President JD Vance sounds like the beginning of a bad Saturday Night Live skit. It would be hilarious if the potential consequences hadn't been so dangerous.
Tragically, however, this disaster took place in real life, and because of the gross incompetence and complete lack of judgment by the Trump administration's entire national security team, the troops carrying out this mission could have been killed. The fact that the 'Bad News Bears' of national security officials were openly discussing specific target locations, time and date of the strike, and the specific ammunitions that would be used is beyond unforgiveable. This would be like if in World War II General Eisenhower was openly discussing the exact war plans for the D-Day invasion so the Germans could find out and prepare their defenses.
At a bare minimum, Pete Hegseth and Mike Waltz should be fired. Everyone that was on that chat should be held accountable because discussions like that must be held in what's known as a 'sensitive compartmented information facility,' and they all know that.
If it is even remotely possible to accidentally invite a journalist into a conversation about detailed attack plans, such a conversation should never take place on an app of that kind. It's common sense that even a fifth grader could understand. Unfortunately, Hegseth and crew are either too lazy or just don't care and think that they are all above the law. It is probably a combination of both.
Any military veteran can tell you that if we were ever caught being this incompetent in handling sensitive operational plans that could compromise our fellow soldiers in the field then we would almost certainly be kicked out of the military with a dishonorable discharge and face possible imprisonment at Fort Leavenworth.
Pete Hegseth likes to brag about how he removed DEI from the military and that soldiers will be judged only on their performance and nothing else. Well, now is the time for him to put up or shut up because he fouled up in a monumental way and made it crystal clear that he is completely unfit to lead our brave men and women in uniform. They deserve so much better than him and his lack of leadership.
And speaking of foul-ups, we must not forget Senator Tillis.
Tillis had the chance to show some real courage and backbone by doing the right thing and being the deciding vote to sink Hegseth's nomination. Sadly, and predictably, he chose the coward's way out because he thought it would help him in the Republican primary for next year's Senate election.
And maybe he is right that it will help him in the primary, but it is absolutely going to hurt him in the general election. If the Democrats are smart, then they will repeatedly remind voters that Hegseth's dangerously incompetent performance was only made possible by Tillis's cowardice.
And they'll also remind all voters of the sleazy predicate to Tillis's flipflop on the confirmation vote — the one in which he asked Hegseth's ex-sister-in-law to put her name and reputation on the line with testimony on Hegseth's years of extreme alcohol abuse. Tillis assured Danielle Hegseth that if she came forward that it would be enough to sway his vote and the votes of other senators and sink the nomination. And then after she put her own personal safety at risk by coming forward, he stabbed her in the back for the purpose of his own political expedience. These are the actions of a weak man who, just like Pete Hegseth, is completely unfit to lead.