“Decades of decay” must be fixed by the US military, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday while speaking to a rare audience of hundreds of senior officers who traveled from all over the world to hear him speak near Washington.
With President Donald Trump ordering deadly strikes on small, suspected drug boats in the Caribbean and stationing troops in two Democratic-run US cities, the military has been embroiled in domestic and international debate.
In addition to ordering strikes on Iranian nuclear targets and rebels in Yemen supported by Tehran, Trump has presided over a rare purging of top officers since taking office.
“The goal of my speech is to repair decades of deterioration, some of which are evident and others of which are not.
