Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth just did something the Pentagon desperately needed but nobody in Washington had the spine to pull off until now: trimming the bureaucratic fat at the top so our military can actually focus on fighting wars instead of hosting diversity training PowerPoints and climate seminars. It’s about time someone grabbed the bloated command structure by the collar and gave it a good hard shake.
“Less Generals, More GIs.” That’s not just a catchy slogan — that’s a wake-up call to an institution that has slowly but surely lost its edge in the name of wokeness and political posturing. Hegseth’s plan to cut 20% of four-star and flag officers in both active duty and the National Guard is exactly the kind of shakeup the Pentagon needs if it’s going to stop acting like an Ivy League HR department and start acting like the most lethal fighting force on the planet again.
Let’s talk numbers for a second, shall we? One general officer for every 1,400 troops today, compared to one per 6,000 back in World War II. That’s a lot of stars for not a lot of warfighting. At some point, you’ve got to ask: what are all these top brass doing other than approving DEI initiatives and making sure their LinkedIn photos look polished? Because it sure doesn’t feel like we’ve been prioritizing readiness, lethality, or—God forbid—winning wars lately.
Now, Hegseth made it clear this isn’t a vendetta against generals and admirals. And to be fair, there are some good ones still hanging on in the upper ranks, grumbling quietly while watching their beloved institution get hijacked by social experiments and Beltway nonsense. But he also rightly pointed out that a big chunk—about a third—are playing ball with the Washington ideologues.
These are the same brass who will gladly salute the latest gender policy or climate directive if it means getting another star or a nice defense contractor gig after retirement. Loyalty to the Constitution? Sure. But only after their pensions are locked in.
The real kicker here is how overdue this is. Hegseth called it the biggest shake-up since the 1986 Goldwater Nichols Act, and he’s right. For decades, our command structure has ballooned into an unwieldy mess of overlapping commands, redundant decision-making, and—let’s be honest—some really cushy gigs for officers who haven’t seen a foxhole in years. Proposals like consolidating European and Africa commands or combining Northern and Southern commands are just common sense. That is, if your goal is warfighting, not résumé-padding.
And of course, the predictable crowd is already clutching their pearls. The usual suspects will whine about “institutional knowledge” or “undermining leadership” or some other nonsense that misses the point entirely. The point isn’t to gut the military — it’s to fix it. You don’t make the tip of the spear sharper by adding more brass to the hilt.
Here’s the bottom line: America doesn’t need more generals. It needs more warfighters. More doers, fewer PowerPointers. More readiness, less righteousness. Hegseth understands that strength doesn’t come from the boardrooms at the Pentagon. It comes from young men and women in uniform who deserve leadership that’s focused on winning wars, not appeasing woke checklists.
Introducing the “Less Generals More GIs Policy.” pic.twitter.com/bQLRL2MqSC
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) May 5, 2025
This is what “peace through strength” actually looks like. Not a slogan, not a press release — but decisive action to strip away the dead weight and restore the fighting edge. Bravo, Mr. Secretary. Now keep going. Because if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the past two decades, it’s that bureaucracy doesn’t win wars — grit does.
