Podbit · Up First from NPR
Pete Hegseth was a National Guard major who never went to Ranger School. Platner says that insecurity about his own limited combat record is what drives Hegseth to posture with the U.S. military — literally starting wars so he can play tough guy.
Where this was said
At 41:24 · chapter starts 40:20
Fadel draws a comparison between Platner and Pete Hegseth: both were shaped by the post-9/11 wars, but they've channeled that experience in radically different directions. Platner is diplomatic about the gap in their combat backgrounds — 'Secretary Hegseth and I have very different backgrounds in combat' — before being anything but diplomatic about his interpretation of Hegseth's behavior. A National Guard major who never went to Ranger School and whose combat record is limited now has the largest military in the world at his disposal. Platner's diagnosis is psychologically blunt: Hegseth's insecurity about his own record is what drives him to posture, to start wars, to perform toughness with the U.S. military as his prop. The charge is stark — 'Pete Hegseth is literally using the US military to make up for the fact that he's insecure about his own military service' — and Fadel's follow-up question ('That's what you think he's doing?') only prompts a flat 'Absolutely. Of course that's what he's doing.'
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