US-Präsident und Kriegsminister schwören Militär auf neue Richtung ein (Update)

Von den Reden von US-Präsident Donald Trump und von Kriegsminister (offizielle Bezeichnung) Pete Hegseth vor den versammelten Generalen und Admiralen der US-Streitkräfte gibt es noch kein Transkript – aber was bislang davon bekannt wurde, lässt erschrecken: President Tells Top Brass U.S. Cities Should Be Military ‘Training Grounds’, berichtet zum Beispiel die New York Times. Und absehbar scheint, dass der Kurs gegen Schwarze und Frauen im Militär fortgesetzt wird.

Die Rede des Kriegsministers gibt es schon komplett:

Update 1: Die Rede von Hegseth liegt jetzt im Transkript vor, einige Schwerpunkte:

Good morning and welcome to the War Department because the era of the Department of Defense is over. You see, the motto of my first platoon was those who long for peace must prepare for war. This is, of course, not a new idea. This crowd knows that. (…)
From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this: warfighting, preparing for war and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit not because we want war, no one here wants war, but it’s because we love peace. We love peace for our fellow citizens. They deserve peace, and they rightfully expect us to deliver.
Our number one job, of course, is to be strong so that we can prevent war in the first place. The president talks about it all the time. It’s called peace through strength. And as history teaches us, the only people who actually deserve peace are those who are willing to wage war to defend it.
That’s why pacifism is so naive and dangerous. It ignores human nature and it ignores human history. Either you protect your people and your sovereignty or you will be subservient to something or someone. It’s a truth as old as time. (…) 
Another way to put it is peace through strength brought to you by the warrior ethos, and we are restoring both. As President Trump has said, and he’s right, we have the strongest, most powerful, most lethal and most prepared military on the planet. That is true, full stop. Nobody can touch us. It’s not even close. (…)
This speech today — as I drink my coffee, this speech today is about people and it’s about culture. The topic today is about the nature of ourselves, because no plan, no program, no reform, no formation will ultimately succeed unless we have the right people and the right culture at the War Department. (…)
Our warfighters are entitled to be led by the best and most capable leaders. That is who we need you all to be. Even then, in combat, even if you do everything right, you may still lose people because the enemy always gets a vote. We have a sacred duty to ensure that our warriors are led by the most capable and qualified combat leaders. This is one thing you and I can control, and we owe it to the force to deliver.
For too long, we have simply not done that. The military has been forced by foolish and reckless politicians to focus on the wrong things. In many ways, this speech is about fixing decades of decay, some of it obvious, some of it hidden, or as the chairman has put it, we are clearing out the debris, removing the distractions, clearing the way for leaders to be leaders. You might say we’re ending the war on warriors. I heard someone wrote a book about that.
For too long, we’ve promoted too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons, based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called firsts. We’ve pretended that combat arms and non-combat arms are the same thing. We’ve weeded out so-called toxic leaders under the guise of double blind psychology assessments, promoting risk averse go along to get along conformists instead. You name it, the department did it.
Foolish and reckless political leaders set the wrong compass heading and we lost our way. We became the woke department. But not anymore. Right now, I’m looking out at a sea of Americans who made a choice when they were young men and young women to do something most Americans will not, to serve something greater than yourself, to fight for God and country, for freedom and the Constitution.

(Die Sicherungskopie der Rede hier:
20250930_Hegseth_Flag_officer_speech)

Zusammen mit der Rede und dem neuen Kurs,  angeblich verweichlichte Streitkräfte auf die Richtung der neuen Führung auszurichten, wurden mehrere neue Vorschriften erlassen. Unter anderem geht es um neue Fitness-Tests, die – wie vom Minister angekündigt – nach Kampftruppen und anderen unterscheiden und vor allem nicht mehr gender-neutral sein sollen.

Die Rede von Trump im Video:

Die Analyse der New York Times:

A Novice Defense Secretary Lectures the Brass on What It Takes to Win

Nachtrag: Ein Leser weist mich darauf hin (vielen Dank!), dass es sowohl Hegseth‘ als auch Trumps Reden hier im Transkript zum Nachlesen gibt:

https://www.rev.com/transcripts/hegseth-and-trump-address-to-military

(Foto: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth delivers remarks during a War Department Address at Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., Sept. 30, 2025 – DoW photo by U.S. Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Aiko Bongolan)