'When did our ideas become so fragile?' Pentagon official slams boss' new policy

There is a war on ideas in the Pentagon, according to a new report from The Atlantic.

The news site noted on Monday that many top defense leaders and generals were headed to the Aspen Security Forum when Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put a stop to it and blocked further participation in any event unless vetted by his own team.

On social media, DOD spokesperson Sean Parnell claimed that the forum was “hosted by an organization that promotes the evils of globalism, disdain for America, and hatred for our great president, Donald J. Trump.”

Atlantic reporter Nancy Youssef noted that earlier this year, the DOD killed the Office of Net Assessment, which aimed to create internal assessments of U.S. readiness. Hegseth then blocked a shipment of weapons to Ukraine, claiming his own readiness assessment. All of the decisions came from Hegseth's close group of advisors, defense officials said.

The new isolated approach to ideas is new, The Atlantic reported.

"The U.S. military has had a symbiotic relationship with think tanks for years," the report stated. "While government employees and military officers are mired in day-to-day operations and focused on tactical warfare, outside scholars have the time and space for engaging in strategic thinking and coming up with solutions to thorny problems."

Former U.S. assistant secretary of defense for strategy, Mara Karlin, said, “So often in government, you are choosing between awful options. You think you have found the least-bad options, and places like think tanks allow you to test that conclusion."

Retired Army Col. Pete Mansoor told The Atlantic that Hegseth is emphasizing "lethality" over strategic thinking. He said that such coordination and conversation at conferences can foster more innovation.

"The fact that officers stopped thinking strategically and only thought about lethality resulted in a war that was almost lost in Iraq,” Mansoor said. “I’m sure the Russian army also stresses lethality, but they have educated their generals on the basis of a million casualties” in Ukraine.

Barring participation in conferences makes the U.S. just a little more like China and Russia, Youssef said.

“When did our ideas become so fragile that they can’t stand up to someone who has alternate views?” said one official.

Youssef wrote that it was only after the new anti-conference policy was announced that Pentagon officials fully understood how many conferences military staff attended each year. Officials were forced to draft the official policy with guidelines, said one official.

Vice President J.D. Vance went to the Munich Security Conference this year and former Vice President Kamala Harris went to conferences as well. Secretary Pete Hegseth attended the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri-La Dialogue, in Singapore. Later this year, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum will host its own massive national security conference.

The latter is ironic, since Hegseth and Trump frequently cite the Reagan phrase "peace through strength."

"Yet, by Hegseth’s own directive, no one knows whether he or the troops he urges to embrace that approach will be able to attend the conference that celebrates it," Youssef closed.

Read the full report here.