Perhaps unique in our history, all the senior leaders of our military branches were summoned from around the world to a meeting Sept. 30 in Quantico, Va. 

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth first addressed the group and announced the end of “woke” in our military and associated changes. The commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump, then addressed the generals and admirals.  

Here is what he had to say:

“If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future, but you just feel nice and loose, OK, because we’re all on the same team.  Together (you) represent the greatest and most elite fighting force in the history of the world: the United States military.

“We’re very proud of our military. I rebuilt the military during my first term. It’s one of the greatest achievements.

“And you know, we want war because we want to have no wars, but you have to be there. And you know, sometimes you have to do it. I have settled so many wars since we’re here. We’re here almost nine months and I’ve settled seven and yesterday we might have settled the biggest of them all (Gaza). Although, I don’t know, Pakistan, India was very big, both nuclear powers. I settled that.

“I rebuilt our nuclear, as you probably know, but we’ll upgrade that also.  We have to hope we never have to use it because the power of that is so incredible. I see things – I don’t think they’d show it to you. I really wouldn’t want them to show it to you. But when you see the result of what’s left, you never want to use that.

“We were a little bit threatened by Russia recently. I moved a submarine or two, I won’t say about the two, over to the coast of Russia, just to be careful because we can’t let people throw around that word (nuclear). I call it the ‘N’ word. There are two ‘N’ words and you can’t use either of them.

“But I’m sure we’re not going to have to use it. But it’s (submarine) an amazing – it’s undetectable totally. Ours is – theirs isn’t. Theirs are totally detectable.  But we have a genius apparatus that doesn’t allow detection.  It’s incredible. We’re way ahead of everybody in that and other things.

“Over the past eight months, new enlistments – I’m so proud of this – have surged to record highs.  By the way, the police also, fire department. I always put the fire department in because they’re great. They’re great, and I got 95 percent of their vote, too. That helps. When you get 95 percent of the vote, you always have to mention them, but they’re great. And they’re brave in our inner cities, which we’re going to be talking about because it’s a big part of war now.

“Our firemen are incredible. They’re up on one of these ladders that goes way up to the sky rescuing people, and you have animals shooting at them – shooting bullets at firemen that are way up in death territory.  You fall off that ladder, it’s over. It’s over. They don’t even have to inspect you when you hit the ground.

“The President of the United States signs your commission, as you know, and that commission is beautifully displayed.  And I sign it – actually, I love my signature. I really do. Everyone loves my signature.

“That’s why one of the first executive orders I signed upon taking office was to restore the principle of merit. That’s the most important word, other than the word ‘tariff.’ I love tariffs, most beautiful word, but I’m not allowed to say that anymore.  It’s now my fifth favorite word and I’m OK with that.

“I think we should maybe start thinking about battleships, by the way. I look at different ships in the old pictures. I used to watch Victory at Sea. I love Victory at Sea. I don’t think it’s old technology when you look at those guns, but it’s something we’re actually considering, the concept of battleship, nice six-inch size, solid steel, not aluminum – aluminum that melts if it looks at a missile coming at it. It starts melting as the missile is about two miles away.

“But it seems that the (cities) that are run by the radical left Democrats, what they’ve done to San Francisco, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, they’re very unsafe places and we’re going to straighten them out one by one. And this is going to be a major part for some of the people in this room. That’s a war, too.”

Now, imagine being a senior officer summoned to hear this speech. You earned your leadership position through merit and decades of service to your country. You’ve spent years developing an intimate understanding of our weaponry and strategies to use it. 

You have to silently sit there and listen to a draft dodger who has called veterans “suckers” for throwing their lives away in service to their country; who used Arlington National Cemetery as a political ad stage; and who sat on his butt and watched on TV as our nation’s Capitol was assaulted during a joint session of Congress.

Our democracy depends on an apolitical military. I pray our military leaders do not let the incompetent civilian leader we elected distract them from their “defense” of the free world.