Pete Hegseth: Venezuela Strike Report

When the Democratic Party released a video — featuring Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona along with five other Democratic lawmakers — solemnly telling our enlisted men and women that they had the right and responsibility to “refuse illegal orders,” my first reaction was to roll my eyes at what I assumed was the cynical “Resistance” theater of it all. My second was to think it a bad idea to encourage low-level soldiers and sailors to start venturing uninformed opinions about what was or was not an illegal order.

When Secretary of War Pete Hegseth immediately retaliated in the most vulgar of ways — by threatening to call Kelly back to active duty for court-martial — my resolve to dismiss the matter intensified: Here was yet another stupidly escalatory PR battle in D.C., with both Democrats and the administration provoking and threatening one another and distracting the public from (1) the increasingly miserable outlook for the American economy; (2) the fact that neither side has answers for it, but only one of them owns it.

When the Democratic Party released a video — featuring Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona along with five other Democratic lawmakers — solemnly telling our enlisted men and women that they had the right and responsibility to “refuse illegal orders,” my first reaction was to roll my eyes at what I assumed was the cynical “Resistance” theater of it all. My second was to think it a bad idea to encourage low-level soldiers and sailors to start venturing uninformed opinions about what was or was not an illegal order.

When Secretary of War Pete Hegseth immediately retaliated in the most vulgar of ways — by threatening to call Kelly back to active duty for court-martial — my resolve to dismiss the matter intensified: Here was yet another stupidly escalatory PR battle in D.C., with both Democrats and the administration provoking and threatening one another and distracting the public from (1) the increasingly miserable outlook for the American economy; (2) the fact that neither side has answers for it, but only one of them owns it.

About the Author

Jeffrey Blehar

Jeffrey Blehar is a National Review staff writer living in Chicago. He is also the co-host of National Review’s Political Beats podcast, which explores the great music of the modern era with guests from the political world happy to find something non-political to talk about.