Even
at 76, I’m still learning new acronyms. Last time it was TACO (Trump Always
Chickens Out). Today, it’s FAFO.
At the end of his September 30th spectacle in Virginia, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth bellowed “FAFO!” at 800 generals and admirals.
(For the uninitiated, FAFO means “f--- around and find out.”). Just imagine he used a Twitter slang to address the country’s top brass and thought it was a great line.
Who is this man who wants to transform the US military?
After graduating Princeton in 2003, Hegseth served about 14 years in the National Guard, reached the modest rank of major, and rotated through Guantánamo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He later picked up a master’s at Harvard, proving that expensive degrees don’t always buy good judgment. (This fake couldn't even name any ASEAN country during his Senate confirmation!)
Then came Fox News, where Hegseth blossomed into a professional culture warrior. He railed against “wokeism,” wrote books with titles like The War on Warriors, and discovered that shaking his fist at imaginary enemies sells.
But Hegseth’s fame isn’t just about books and TV hits.
- Booze: Former colleagues
said he drank on the job. Think “happy hour” but starting before noon.
- Sexual misconduct:
A woman accused him of assault in 2017, alleging her drink was spiked and
consent ignored. He called it consensual; prosecutors called it
unprovable. He later settled, money in exchange for silence.
- Workplace antics:
At an veterans’ event, even The New Yorker couldn’t resist
reporting his strip-club stage ambitions.
- Family drama: His second wife reportedly had an “escape plan” in case of emergencies. Enough said.
To butter up Trump, Hegseth staged a military parade for Trump’s 79th birthday on June 14.
It
flopped. Troops smiled and waved. Trump fumed that they weren’t menacing
enough. “Tremendous success,” he boasted in public – while privately roasting
Hegseth for producing what looked more like a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
So much for the strongman optics.
The September 30th summons of the generals brought to mind a Chinese idiom: 烽火戏诸侯 (Fēng-huǒ Xì Zhū-hóu) — “to fool the military lords by lighting false beacon fires.”
The story takes place in the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 1046–771 BCE), under its last king, King Yōu (周幽王 Zhōu Yōu-wáng). The Zhou monarchs ruled a feudal system in which noble lords pledged military aid in exchange for land. To summon their armies swiftly against raiding tribes, the court devised a network of beacon towers — smoke by day, fire by night — flashing urgent calls for defence across the kingdom.
But King Yōu was besotted with his concubine Bāo Sì (褒姒), famed for her beauty and her melancholy. She never smiled. Desperate to please her, the king promised lavish rewards to anyone who could coax a laugh.
One schemer proposed a cruel joke: light the beacons. The military lords rushed to the capital in full armour, expecting war. Instead, they found no enemy, only their king and his concubine watching with delight as Bāo Sì finally smiled.
Humiliated, the lords went home fuming. Yet the king repeated the prank again and again. Soon, the lords ceased to believe the signals. And when a real invasion came, the beacons flared once more - but no one came. The capital was overrun, King Yōu was killed, and the Western Zhou collapsed, never to recover its former strength.
The
moral is stark: trust, once squandered, cannot be summoned back at will.
Leaders who toy with loyalty discover too late that no one believes them — even
when the enemy stands at the gates.
Wasn’t Hegseth trying to make Trump smile?
Imagine a career major lecturing four-star generals like naughty schoolboys. That’s what happened.
Hegseth denounced “woke culture,” scrapped diversity and inclusion, loosened rules on hazing, and declared that anyone who disagreed should resign.
He strutted about as if he were Billy Graham and Franklin D. Roosevelt rolled into one – only without the grace of the preacher or the genius of the president.
Apparently, medieval hazing is the new cutting edge of Hegseth’s concept of military excellence.
Then came Trump, rambling about “invasions from within,” turning American cities into “training grounds,” and promising loyalty to generals who bend the knee.
A man who dodged the draft over “bone spurs” now demands his generals and admirals prepare to invade Baltimore. (Someone’s satirical jab at Trump’s contradictions, recalling Trump’s avoidance of military service during Vietnam by citing dubious medical excuses, and his exaggeration of his tendency to use militaristic, authoritarian language against domestic opponents, even American cities. The humour comes from the irony: someone who once avoided serving in war now plays the tough commander, threatening military action – but not against foreign enemies, rather against his own citizens.)
In short, Trump’s address to the generals and admirals was less a statesman’s briefing than a pep talk laced with vengeance – part locker-room rally, part score-settling tirade. Instead of unity, he offered division; instead of strategy, he poured on grievance. It was equal parts intimidation, self-congratulation, and us-versus-them demagoguery — the language of a campaign stump, not of a commander-in-chief.”
Generals and Admirals with Poker Faces
Hegseth and Trump fancy themselves saviours of the “warrior spirit.” In reality, they’re clowns in borrowed uniforms, shouting acronyms like magic spells.
History says: keep fooling the lords, and one day the fires won’t be answered.
Until then, FAFO might apply best to Hegseth and Trump themselves.
And aren’t Trump, Hegseth, and Trump’s other sycophants – like Peter Navarro, Howard Lutnick, Stephen Miller, and several others – godsends helping China surpass the US faster than anyone would reckon?
And thank goodness – the US is blessed with yet another
shutdown, Trump’s second in office. Hope more will come!
End
Well written
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHere we see Hegseth directing the FAFO phrase at the video camera in the Quantico assembly. Like how he must have done when he was a Fox News host: http://vt.tiktok.com/ZSDKTe4F7
For all his contrived conviction and false fervor, missing were a head-dress, pulpit, some organ music and a hallowed light through stained glass. That he could only elicit stony silence from the military brass he did note, judging from his frozen look in reaction. Undoubtedly to be excused after with another stiff drink for having cooked a bad joke on himself.
All those top military staff must have also heaved a sigh of relief, perhaps with a prayer that something untoward didn't happen when they were all congregating there under one roof. Like the ceiling crashing down from all those thunderous words on brutality, ferosity and lethality. Not to forget precision.
Threatening them with career expulsion because they were too quiet in response to his rah-rah, Trump told his generals he wanted their troops to quell civil disturbances in the cities. In extolling a warrior ethos, Hegseth told them to be physically more manly and martial, and to break things and kill people. Put together, the White House and US War Department want their military to wipe out American rioters. Even imperial Japan's kagemusha's would blanche. Needless to say, those listening to them kept quiet. Some would have noted Hegseth wears many tattoos, perhaps to ward off enemy spirits.
For all their brazen bravura and macho mojo, both Trump and Hegseth are but Psych 101 cases. They desire adulation because they crave validation. They crave validation because they know they are not qualified for their jobs. The entire Trump administration is a pyramidal scheme of cards stacked on stilts of sycophancy and living on the fumes of lies and threats. Unless Newsom wins the presidency in 2028, the republicans will however continue to roost into 2032.
The US military has waged many campaigns. Even in the one which it won, namely Iraq, it was started based on a lie about WMD and, steamrolling over UN protestations, prosecuted against the ex-ally it had armed, only to end with mass extinction of hundreds of thousands of civilian lives including some British troops by friendly fire. In one case of brutality, a Navy SEAL commander videoed himself stabbing to death an unarmed Iraqi kid in the neck. He was discharged honorably after Trump intervened. The Iraqi treasury was also looted.
Somehow, the Iraqi campaign spilled into Afghanistan and against another ex-ally, the Talibans. Now Trump wants back the Bagran airbase, presumably to install Typhoon long-range nuclear missiles against China which is also within reach by B2 bombers from the other base on Diego Garcia south of India.
Thus, taking note the US tends to attack ex-allies, Rutte, der Leyen, Zelennsky and others can't disagree that with an ally like the US, who needs enemies.
The US is only steadfast come what may towards Israel because the US congress is beholden to the constitution of the United States of Israel, and since the US military is oathed to defend the US constitution, the world can only hope the generals can think and read better since their Chief obviously can't without his teleprompter (and Israel is on the warpath to wipe out Palestine). That would explain why he always needed someone standing by to say what his executive orders were set to do before he signed them, wouldn't it? If of any consolation, let's all hope he can't read those nuclear launch instructions.
Needless to say, the future of warfare will be AI-mediated engagement by unmanned autonomous weapons. Like the ultrafascist brutality of the SEAL commander for that matter the US' My Lai massacre or even the Scots regiment wipeout of one Malayan village, Hegseth's warrior ethos will only compound the complexity inherent in AI hallucinations.
So, it's better to promote peace not war. That was sung in Mind Games by Lennon. Who died shot on the pavement.