Dear Friends,
This week, President Trump’s nominees for key national security positions headed to Capitol Hill to sit before the Senate in confirmation hearings to explain their qualifications and policy priorities. In a welcome change from the chaos of the past four years, we heard loud and clear that America is ready to lead again by restoring peace through strength.
Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth was straightforward in committing to this mandate, telling the Senate Armed Services Committee his vision to restore accountability and lethality as the core tenets of our military. VOD was encouraged to hear Hegseth’s plans to end woke political distractions, reform the acquisitions process, strengthen our defense industrial base in areas like shipbuilding, give our service members the tools and resources they need, and reinstitute accountability to the Pentagon.
In Hegseth’s own words, “Everybody in this room knows, if you’re a rifleman and you lose your rifle, they’re throwing the book at you. But if you’re a general who loses a war… you get a promotion. That’s not going to happen in Donald Trump’s Pentagon.” He went on to emphasize the need to avoid war at all cost, but in the event America must fight in order to depend on its people and allies, we will win.
Marco Rubio, nominee for Secretary of State, was similarly and refreshingly unapologetic about the need for focused American leadership, especially in the face of aggression from the Axis of Authoritarians. “We are once again called to create a free world out of the chaos and this will not be easy, and it will be impossible without a strong and confident America that engages in the world,” said Rubio.
We could not agree more.
Sincerely,
Veterans On Duty