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This morning, an explosive report from The Washington Post’s Alex Horton and Tara Copp is shaping up to be the most devastating blow to Pete Hegseth’s leadership during his tenure as Trump’s Secretary of Defense — and arguably the most embarrassing pushback against a SecDef in decades. Two weeks ago—only just being revealed now—four top military commanders gave “non-concurs” on Hegseth extending operations in the War in Iran, their reasoning outlined in the Aug. 14th edition of the Secretary of Defense Orders Book (SDOB), a classified briefing typically presented twice a month to the SecDef by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Think of the SDOB as a blunt summary of U.S. military operations worldwide: here are the assets we have, here are the places our units are currently deployed, this is our trajectory in line with national security priorities, here are our recommendations relating to the SecDef’s orders, etc. In this particular edition of the SDOB, the heads of U.S. European Command, U.S. Pacific Command, and U.S. Southern Command—along with the Chief of Naval Operations—each offered a “non-concur” in response to Hegseth’s plan to extend forces in the War in Iran. Army and Air Force officials reportedly “concurred” with Hegseth’s strategy but expressed significant concerns regarding the challenges. Their collective reasoning amounts to the operation being “unsustainable” and degrading force readiness in other parts of the world and basically putting our military in a globally weaker position for potential wars in the future. As Ms. Copp and Mr. Horton correctly highlighted in their reporting, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Daryl Caudle, offered the most immediately concerning feedback: quite simply that the U.S. Navy cannot sustain force readiness at the current level in the Iran operation. That’s basically the bus driver turning their head around an hour into a road trip and pointing out that we can’t do this on a quarter tank of gas. Oh, and one or two tires might be flat. Oh, and no there’s no spare available. To be clear, it’s not highly unusual for a military commander to give a “non-concur” in an SDOB that’s backed up with a reasonable assessment. The SDOB is intended to be an avenue through which top military commanders can disagree with the SecDef’s grand strategy and/or offer honest feedback, but in current practice—in this Pentagon and under this president—mere disagreement, even in a classified setting, is obviously quite risky. Several generals and admirals have been fired or forced into early retirement in the past year over their private disagreements with Trump and Hegseth. In August of 2025, Hegseth fired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, then head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, when LTG Kruse produced a preliminary intelligence assessment that contradicted Trump and Hegseth, claiming their missile strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities that June had only set back the regime’s nuclear program “by months” and had not “completely obliterated” them as Trump and Hegseth had told the American public. Last October, Admiral Alvin Holsey, then-head of U.S. Southern Command, was reportedly forced out when he clashed with Hegseth over operations in Latin America and the growing concern over the legality of the Pentagon’s strikes on civilian boats. Hegseth then forced out Gen. George Randy—the widely-respected Army Chief of Staff—this past April, supposedly over the general’s refusal to shut down an investigation into the unauthorized and highly controversial helicopter flyby of Kid Rock’s property in Tennessee. These aren’t including the wider purge of generals and admirals during Hegseth’s time leading the Pentagon, mostly based on anti-DEI reasoning: U.S. Air Force General (and then-Chairman of the JCS) Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, Jr. in February of 2025; U.S. Navy Admiral (and then-Chief of Naval of Operations) Lisa Franchetti the same month; U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Lisa Fagan (and then-Commandant) early in the admin — and the list goes on and on. Nearly all of them were removed early in their tenures, most with no clear reasoning given for their removals. The first 19 months of Trump 2.0 have been characterized by what seems to be an ongoing, blatant campaign of intimidation to keep senior brass in the Pentagon toeing the line and not pushing back against administration officials. That’s partly what makes this morning’s story all the more jarring. While it’s not necessarily a red flag or particularly unusual for a senior military officer to disagree respectfully in these classified briefings—even before Trump’s time—there’s simply no precedent for the range of disagreement that was registered across military branches in the Aug. 14th SDOB. If any of the defense secretaries under Presidents Biden, Obama, or Bush had gotten this degree and range of pushback from top uniformed personnel, there would be immediate congressional hearings, calls for resignations, and talks of impeachment. In this especially heightened environment of censorship and browbeating within the current culture of the Pentagon, four of the most senior military officers serving at the highest levels of our national security apparatus made it clear to Hegseth, in no uncertain terms, that they disagree with his strategy regarding Iran, which, after the sluggish economy, has grown into the most potent weakness Trump has with the American people. Only 31 percent approved of Trump’s handling of Iran in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released earlier this week, down from 34 percent at the start of this month and 37 percent back in February, a shift that is blamed on a growing number of Republican voters turning against the operation. Moreover, someone had to leak the information contained in this classified briefing and did so knowing that it would further confirm the extraordinary weakness the Trump administration has exhibited in its apparently dead-on-arrival “negotiations” with the Iranian regime to end the war. In political circles in D.C., across party lines, it is the consensus perception that the War in Iran has already been lost. Nothing has been accomplished in service to the range of dubiously-claimed objectives sloppily laid out by Trump, but worse than that, the Iranian regime is in a stronger position than it was this past February when the operation was launched. Nothing has gone right. Traditional allies of the U.S. have been openly critical of the operation and resistant—if not directly opposed—to assisting in it. The Pentagon has been besieged by reports on everything from depleted weapons stockpiles to service members enduring intolerable living conditions, most notably on the USS Abraham Lincoln. The Strait of Hormuz—the shipping lane for trade in the region, critical for commerce and security around the globe—has been completely closed or partially closed for the past six months. Despite Trump’s claims that commercial vessels are getting through, he fails to mention that shipping is down more than 90 percent from its usual traffic, which will soon compound the economic consequences already being felt globally and certainly here in the United States. On top of that, the Iranian regime is more extremist now and far less conducive to cooperating with the U.S. government in a way that would be beneficial to our own interests, notably national security and preventing the development of Iranian nuclear weapons. This leak emerging from the Pentagon will significantly weaken the already anemic position of the Trump administration in negotiating at least some kind of face-saving resolution to what is clearly the most embarrassing foreign policy venture in recent memory, even more so than Iraq. In six months, Trump and Hegseth have managed to diminish our military readiness, weaken our economy, alienate our allies, strengthen the Iranian regime, and get civilians and service members needlessly killed — all without any concessions that would justify the operation in the first place. It has been enormously costly, egregiously humiliating, and wholly without gain. In light of all this, perhaps the cordial lack of confidence in Hegseth expressed by our senior military leaders is being rather kind on their part. ---- Link to full essay available here for easier sharing: charlotteclymer.substack.com…