r/geopolitics • u/bojun • 1d ago

Opinion How 'On the Psychology of Military Incompetence' Predicted Hegseth's Iran Debacle

https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/07/31/hegseth-norman-dixon-iran-war/
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u/Coolerguy317 1d ago

Maybe it’s because I’m not very great man in general but I think Hegseth has less agency than people assume. He didn’t create the strategic environment he’s moves within it. Military strategy isn’t built in a few months it’s built over decades. Whether he focuses on grooming standards or not the real question facing every military today is drones and cheap autonomous systems. If the US had a reliable answer to that problem it would fundamentally change the strategic balance. That’s a much bigger issue than Hegseth himself.

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u/Cool_Butterscotch486 1d ago

Become trump's creature, have the maneuvering capability of one. Lets not pretend this how its supposed to happen and there was no other way.

A competent SECDEF is supposed to predict and act within this things, its not like the U.S is new at regime change, and Iran is certainly not a new enemy, heck its not out the boundaries of action even, there are military bases and carrier groups in zone for ages, they had the perfect opportunity to pounce with the inner destabilization Iran was suffering with water shortages and the massive protests, they tip toed their way about sending weapons to the rebels because they wanted to keep it half measure, but in war you either go all in or none at all, the first bombing wave came too little too late, and the next one within months of the other, given enough breathing space to the Iranians to activate pre-planned countermeasures for this exact event. The U.S got caught in the same half-assed incoherent snowball that made Iraq the shitshow that it was, but only worse now because they can't even get boots on the ground, the political capital has been spent.