Generals don’t have lifetime tenure, but purging them is a serious business.
In the run-up to World War II, General George Marshall, chief of staff of the U.S. Army and one of the key architects of victory in the great struggle to come, methodically purged many of the senior officers who had led the service during the prewar period. It was necessary work. Too old, too political, or otherwise unfit to command in battle, these generals had to go. Marshall replaced them with much younger, talented men whom he had made it his business to spot over the years. Dwight Eisenhower, for example, was a lieutenant colonel (a mid-ranking officer) and still in his 40s when Hitler invaded Poland. Within a few short years he would be a five-star general in supreme command of the Allied forces in Europe.
Given the U.S. military’s mixed record since 9/11—to be kind—it is far from crazy to make the case that similar measures are needed today. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth seems to have just such a goal in mind, with his interventions into officer promotions and personnel issues across the military. The qualities needed to manage deployments during the war on terror and navigate the Pentagon’s shifting politics are not what will be required to win a campaign defending the First Island Chain against Chinese attack. This will be a high-tech war of data and drone swarms, but also one demanding classic military toughness and an ability to lead our outnumbered and likely isolated troops through what will be extraordinary hardships.
