Pete's Pentagon leaves a bad taste in my mouth, and a massive hole in our national security
TAT readers,
As always, there are plenty of issues to be outraged over so long as this administration and their party hold power within our government, but today, this is personal. Some of the things happening in and around the Pentagon these days that don’t get big headlines, are revolting. Today, I’ll vent a bit of my deep frustration about one of those less visible transgressions, but mostly around the immigration issues for servicemembers and veterans, along with their families. How is it that a nation of immigrants that is protected by a military that is 98.3 % immigrant or a descendant of immigrants, can abuse immigrants currently serving on active duty and their families?
While mining this morning’s news for a topic today, I came across an “Exclusive” from the AP/ Associated Press titled; 50-plus military spouses, parents detained in immigration crackdown. As a retired soldier, I felt deep shame and disgust while poring over the details in their “exclusive.” ICE rounding up family members of serving US servicemembers for removal, strikes at the very heart of what service to our nation of immigrants means. Abusing the families of these warriors denigrates the very cause those warriors serve, and violates the constitution they have sworn to protect with their lives, if need be. As we have come to expect from this administration, they refused comment when queried by the AP for comment on this story.
Like all other federal agencies in this administration, queries to DHS, ICE, CBP etc., go unanswered. We no longer receive the information from our government that we have traditionally had access to. Even when we do, it is often false when fact checked or a conspiracy theory that is offered as truth. This is no way to run a government that as President Lincoln so eloquently stated in his iconic Gettysburg Address, is "of the people, by the people, and for the people."
"President Donald Trump’s administration has detained dozens of parents and spouses of active-duty U.S. troops as it rolls back immigration protections for military families to pursue its mass deportation agenda, an Associated Press investigation found. More than 50 parents and spouses of active-duty service members have been detained since Trump took office for a second term, and at least six have been deported and one self-deported, the AP found in the first accounting of such detentions, which the government does not track. At least eight immediate family members of U.S. service members remain in federal immigration custody." - AP Exclusive: Trump’s immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents - Associated Press - By JACK BROOK, SAFIYAH RIDDLE and AARON KESSLER - Updated 11:40 AM EDT, August 5, 2026
To illustrate the evil of this removal effort, allow me to explain that the military already had made commitments to family members of troops that are not citizens but are legal residents, to “parole-in-place.”
"One of the military’s most highly advertised immigration benefits is “military parole-in-place,” which allows the spouses, children and parents of active-duty service members and veterans to obtain legal immigration status from within the country. Not everyone qualifies: Those who overstayed visas or who already applied for legal status at the border, for example. The policy was implemented under Republican President George W. Bush during the U.S. war with Iraq in 2007 and codified under Democratic President Barack Obama. DHS agencies can grant it on a case-by-case basis." - AP Exclusive: Trump’s immigration crackdown has detained more than 50 military spouses and parents - Associated Press - By JACK BROOK, SAFIYAH RIDDLE and AARON KESSLER - Updated 11:40 AM EDT, August 5, 2026
The Pentagon even used Parole-in-Place or PIP as a recruiting tool to boost our flagging recruiting goals.
"In recent years, federal immigration authorities took military service into consideration when deciding whether to enforce deportations or detainment against immigrant troops, veterans and their families. But the attorneys said that deference to service has now either stopped or isn't clearly being taken into consideration. ICE referred Military.com to the Department of Homeland Security when asked late last month whether it considers military service when enforcing deportation. DHS did not reply by publication. "They're no longer exercising discretion in favor of military members and their families," Stock said. "It creates an irreconcilable conflict for the military member, and it cuts against the message the military likes to put out that we take care of people, that we don't hurt family members and military members." "We've stopped taking care of people," she added." - Marine Recruiters Promoted an Immigration Benefit Until the Corps Told Them to Stop - Military Times - Drew F. Lawrence - July 9th, 2025
In today’s military, whether on base or within the surrounding communities, there is a fair amount of chaos due to the endless administration shakeups in everything from combat operations to base closures and mass job-loss due to federal firings. This increases the stress on everyone from troops to federal employees and defense contractors. Surrounding communities are feeling the stress as well, especially after all of the job losses cut into their customer base. I have family members and friends, often retired military who work in government, who are perpetually stressed by the chaos of this administration. Many family members of troops live on and often work on bases, therefore contributing to the well-being of their families and other servicemembers. Add to this, the stress of worrying about family members being pursued by ICE despite the Parole-in-Place program, and we have servicemembers who struggle to focus on their missions.
If our nation of immigrants desires citizens who are willing to serve their nation on the battlefield, we have an obligation to not abuse their families. The PIP plan was advertised as a benefit to attract new recruits and now, we are not only reneging on our word, we are deporting family members who are part of the support system for our warfighters. Adding salt to the wound, the administration is now also deporting non-citizen, active-duty servicemembers. This is particularly egregious to me as that my first wife served in my unit in the US army with only a green card. Years after leaving the army, she became a naturalized citizen.
This is but one more of the countless examples of how the Republican Party’s support for the military is more myth than substance. They continue to attempt to steal our VA benefits, side with our adversaries, fire our finest generals and admirals, send us on wars of empire for oil companies, fail to protect us at war and waste our hard-earned tax-dollars giving obnoxiously marked up and no-bid contracts to their defense contractor buddies, rather than investing in our troop’s well-being. The final insult is that our so-called Commander-in-Chief, sees us as “losers and suckers.”
The Secretary of Defense shoves his White Christian Nationalist agenda down the throats of our servicemembers, and orders war crimes, but these are not his most destructive traits. Pete’s racist misogynism is undercutting and destroying the very traditions and social innovations that have sustained and transformed the US military into the world’s finest. It was the Pentagon that led on desegregation, waded into gender issues in search of working solutions and pushed hard to educate based on aptitude, not other factors. Then Pete Hegseth came along and began whitewashing our honored history and traditions, by removing the accomplishments of all non-white, non-straight, non-male leaders, icons, heroes etc. This turned my stomach. It’s disingenuous to say that, “all men are created equal,” if only white males count.
My friends, it is beyond painful for veterans who’ve honorably upheld their sacred oath to, “protect and defend the constitution from all enemies foreign and domestic,'“ to witness the administration’s use and abuse of our military. The Pentagon may not always get it right, but overall it has been our reliable insurance policy against tyranny for 250 years. This happened because ideas and adherence to ideals meant something in pre-Trump and MAGA America. America is not her military, land, money, weapons nor any other tangible thing. America is an idea, a dream and a spirit that Pete and his cronies believe they can erase by rewriting our history, abusing our non-white, non-male servicemembers and their families, marginalizing our traditions and shouting us down. He’s wrong and he and his kind, will never understand why. They simply don’t understand that you cannot kill a spirit, especially not a free American spirit.
I’ll begin wrapping this slightly meandering essay by making it clear that I support our troops with as much diligence as I despise this administration and Pete Hegseth for what they are doing to our national security and our troops. As a reminder to those dense Republicans out there, our national security depends on troops believing in what they fight for. Dying so that Chevron, ExxonMobil and the rest could have higher profits next quarter, is not what they signed up to fight for. Pete’s MAGA policies at DoD along with largescale DOGE firings undermined morale, readiness and logistics prior to the administration’s military adventurism around the world.
All of this created additional nightmares after the war with Iran began. The lack of cohesion, failed planning, lack of coordination took its toll. We could begin our war but could not sustain it. We knew this or at least should have known this from the beginning. Our ongoing depleted missile stockpile crisis is clear evidence of failed administration leadership. This crisis alone makes us far weaker should China or any other military crisis arise in the near future. To make matters worse, we don’t even have enough left in our stockpiles to finish the job against Iran, whatever that would look like. Those familiar with military planning are shaking their heads right now and asking themselves, “who in the hell planned Operation Epic Fury?”
Whether it is incompetence on a grand scale, far-right political ideology, massive corruption or any other factor, the jury is in and Pete Hegseth has failed on a global scale. Nations like China now no longer sees us with an invincible military adversary. Our allies doubt us and keep us at arms length, we are incapable of supplying enough munitions to fight a regional war, we are now largely a pariah nation due to tariffs and aggression and we are not taking care of our military. If this isn’t a recipe for disaster, nothing is.
I do appreciate your patience while that I meandered between different topics but all related to the Pentagon and our national security. I hope these thoughts help to fill in some of the blanks between the stories we do see in our headlines.
My very best for your weekend,
Paul