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Comment by jwkpiano1 | Hacker News Reader

He has zero experience running a large organization. The Secretary of Defense, while a political appointee, also requires some ability to manage a large organization, which again, he doesn’t have. And suggesting that we didn’t get the desired outcomes from another qualified candidate doesn’t mean we should switch to literally unqualified candidates. Take your partisan hat off for a few minutes and think about what qualities are necessary in a SecDef, and think about whether Hegseth meets them or not.

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He was a major in the US Army, typically leading a battalion, and while not a government department, saying he has “no experience” is false.

What does a battalion leader need? Organizational ability, the ability to motivate.

He is preceded by a guy who decided to hide a serious health issue from his own boss (must have though nobody noticed Biden’s issues, so no biggie), to the point he was unreachable for days. So as long as he doesn’t do that, he’s already an improvement.

But I get it. It’s “it’s not my team so it’s bad” and then find the justification after. If the situation was flipped the Democrats would be talking up “fresh ideas” and promoting their lack of experience (Buttigieg). So I’ll just take this as politics and no actual, well thought out criticism.

He has experience in a number of positions, but I don't think it should be controversial to point out that he has little to no leadership experience leading large organizations. Hegseth left active duty the same year he was promoted to major. He was only a captain in active duty for less than three years. Captains can lead at most a company, which often have at-most 200 members, but can have less than 100. The department of defense supervises over a million.

Maybe you should read this quote from McConnell, arguably the person who did more to defeat the Democrat agenda in the past 20 years than anyone else, who, coincidentally, voted not to confirm Hesgeth.

> “Effective management of nearly 3 million military and civilian personnel, an annual budget of nearly $1 trillion, and alliances and partnerships around the world is a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the American people and our global interests,” McConnell said in the statement. “Mr. Hegseth has failed, as yet, to demonstrate that he will pass this test. But as he assumes office, the consequences of failure are as high as they have ever been.”

The same McConnell who, after being in the Senate for 40 years, was recently praised on 60 minutes with "his greatest accomplishment is funding the Ukraine War"?

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