I served two tours in Afghanistan alongside allied troops. We shared tents and flew missions in the same skies. Over 1,000 soldiers from partner nations died fighting with us there.
When our SecDef diminishes their sacrifice, he damages trust with allies we may need again.
Plus, he's the SecDef. He should be strengthening our alliances, not teaching ROTC cadets.
Hegseth on Afghanistan:
I was a captain in Afghanistan, and we would go to the headquarters in Kabul, and there would be 50 flags at the headquarters.
It was a beautiful thing to see 50 different countries contributing to the NATO alliance and the ISAF mission there.
Except there were like maybe five that contributed. It was actually closer to one or two that, by the end, were actually involved in kinetic operations.
In fact, the ISAF patch, we would joke that it meant "I Saw Americans Fighting."