Noonan Disappoints

I see this past weekend that Peggy Noonan had focused her ire on Pete Hegseth. She still managed to take a few shots, mind you, at Trump as well, but the Secretary of War was lambasted as a “drama queen”, and in a real underhanded shot, not “sober.” Face it, old haggard Peggy longs for the days of cigar-smoking fat cats cutting deals in back rooms and presenting to the American public a steely-eyed face of power with no transparency. Think Dick Cheney. It’s laughable that the media craves transparency. Still, when they get it from our conservative elected officials, they parse every comment, criticize everything from the presentation to the message, and then wonder why the government becomes less transparent. Trump doesn’t care and lets them have it with both barrels, setting records for administrative exposure and press conferences.

Peggy surmised that Hegseth makes America look “what our foes say we are, a place of make-believe freedom in which even the press is controlled by the government.” Really Peggy?  Compared to what? This may come as a shock to you, but half the government does control the press. The democrat half, not to mention all their deep state progressive warriors in unelected positions inside the beltway and in courtrooms across the nation. I assume you’ve heard of NPR. And they were funded by the government. Sure, Hegseth may be marginally out of his depth. Still, his cheerleading approach is having a positive effect, with military recruitment skyrocketing after it languished in the woke years of the Biden and Obama administrations. He is restoring pride in the military branches, which may not resonate with the civilian overseers, but it sure does with the rank and file. Also interesting to note that on the page opposite Nonnan’s diatribe appeared two letters to the editor from retired military brass bemoaning the culture of woke permeating the military and praising our goal to return to a condition of readiness based on merit.