Hegseth’s tantrums are getting increasingly weird ...Middle East

In the eyes of Pete Hegseth, having a beard while serving in the American military doesn’t just make you look “woke”, it makes you un-American.

The latest tantrum from the US “Secretary of War” relates to the lack of adherence to his dictum in September that all serving members of the military be clean-shaven. No matter that America and Iran are exchanging daily fire amid a crumbling ceasefire, or that Russia and Ukraine are bombarding each other with drone attacks. Instead, the top priority for America’s most senior military official is… too much facial hair on the front line.

After a visit to a Navy ship by the Defence Secretary, a Pentagon official warned colleagues that Hegseth was “paying close attention to the progress” regarding beards and is keen to “move faster”, CNN reported on Friday.

That the length of soldiers’ beards is Hegseth’s chief preoccupation reveals volumes about his priorities while in office. But it’s also a sign of how incompetent he is and how much he is floundering.

Hegseth is a man who can only communicate in superlatives: he claimed in April that the US had achieved “total victory” against Iran after just a few days of bombing. The war against Iran itself is known as “Operation Epic Fury”, which late-night comedian Jon Stewart has joked sounds as if influencer Jake Paul had launched an energy drink.

On Saturday, after Tehran attacked a commercial vessel and declared the Strait of Hormuz closed, the 46-year-old responded in typically bombastic style. “Iran made a poor choice. Now they pay,” he posted on X as America fired back. For Hegseth, the volume is always turned up to 11, America is always “winning” and the might of the US military can never be questioned.

So what happens when such hubris and jacked-up machismo collides with Iran, a theocracy which not only survived weeks of US bombardment, but emerged stronger for it? Hegseth turns to beards, that’s what, because it’s easier than talking about the reality of the war in which Iran has inflicted billions of dollars in damages to US bases in the Middle East.

What he lacks in ability, Hegseth, a former Fox News host, makes up for by generating headlines which appeal to the only person who matters – his boss, Donald Trump. That’s why Hegseth gave a bizarre speech last September after summoning all of America’s top generals from around the world to the Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia, in which he railed about how “woke” the military has become.

In front of men and women with decades of experience at the highest levels of war fighting, the evangelical Christian decried “fat generals” and ordered women in the military to meet the “highest male standards” for physical fitness. He claimed that forcing US Marines to shave would re-instill a “warrior ethos” in the military, adding that the “era of unacceptable appearance is over”.

Rather than Iran or Russia, or even China, “wokeness” was the real enemy within, Hegseth announced. “Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading and we lost our way. We became the ‘Woke Department,’ but not anymore,” he declared. “No more beardos. The era of rampant and ridiculous shaving profiles is done.”

The following month, Hegseth was so upset at troops having beards during a visit to a US base in South Korea that he reportedly refused to meet with them. Now, he has vented his fury again because he thinks his no-beard rule is being ignored, with an email from a Pentagon official focused on personnel policy advising subordinates to “revamp some of our timelines” – as if discussing a top secret plan to invade Kharg Island, one of Iran’s key oil processing facilities.

There is undeniably something comical about Hegseth’s focus on facial hair at a time of such instability in the world. His view of masculinity is like something from a comic book and his obsession with being clean-shaven like that of a grandstanding teenager who has overdosed on Gillette razor adverts.

But it’s also deadly serious: this is a man who has enormous power and has the ear of Trump, who seems delighted with him, for now at least. Hegseth’s gripes serve as a handy distraction from the quagmire that America has landed in over Iran. He has excelled at performative masculinity and is frequently filmed doing workouts with US troops in places like Guantanamo Bay and the USS Boxer, a US Navy assault ship.

Hegseth is treating his role as Secretary of War, as he has rebranded his title, like a reality show rather than a grave undertaking that impacts the world.

At a time of extreme global peril where American leadership is desperately needed, the message from the Pentagon is all air guitars, “USA! USA!” – and absolutely no beards.

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