The US War Secretary Hegseth is finally in the spotlight, but with fame comes headaches. He was set to give a speech to 800 generals, only for President Trump to show up last minute and steal the show. Anyway, Hegseth started off as a nobody, but now he’s got tons of attention; many say he was caught off guard by the sudden fame.
The McNamara Comparison: Not Just Military, But Political Trust
Let’s talk about an American icon: McNamara. In 1943, he joined the US Army Air Corps as a math whiz, rising to captain. His job? Using statistical models to make air force bombing more effective. Post-war, he joined Ford, revamped their management, and by 45, became Ford’s president—second only to Henry Ford II. In 1961, Kennedy tapped him to be Secretary of Defense. Hegseth? He’s been in various wars, earned medals like the Bronze Star, served as an Afghanistan instructor in 2012, moving up to major.
Here’s the thing: as Defense Secretaries, Hegseth and McNamara had similar military creds. Critics say Hegseth’s just a junior officer and can’t be preaching to star generals. But back in 1965, General Westmoreland, the top Vietnam commander, had to report to McNamara. Big military moves had to get Johnson’s nod. So why bash Hegseth but not McNamara? Both started low in rank—what really matters is presidential trust. Without that, no one’s fit for the job.
Kennedy’s “Best and Brightest” — Then and Now
Speaking of McNamara, let’s not forget Kennedy. At 43, he was America’s youngest president ever, seeing himself as a fresh, new-gen leader. His cabinet was full of America’s brightest young minds, called “The Best and the Brightest.” In his inaugural, Kennedy said, “The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans” to lead the nation onward. He promised a “New Frontier”: ending segregation, reforming civil rights, pursuing peace, and taking humanity to space.
McNamara was the poster boy for Kennedy’s “Best and Brightest.” Plus, he held a Harvard MBA and made major WWII contributions, earning his spot among the “Blue Blood Ten,” America’s academic elite. Today, President Trump, a famous TV host by background, probably thinks Hegseth deserves a spot among the Best and Brightest too—he’s one of America’s top TV personalities.
The Flaws of the “Best and Brightest”
But here’s what you can question—the actual capability of America’s “Best and Brightest.” McNamara made grave strategic missteps in Vietnam, known in management circles as the “McNamara Fallacy.” This was his obsession with relying solely on quantitative data, which led to serious errors. He backed Westmoreland’s “carpet bombing” strategy—using B-52 Stratofortress bombers to relentlessly bomb North Vietnam. The flaw? Viet Cong often evacuated before strikes. McNamara still supported it, saying the goal wasn’t necessarily to destroy targets but to psychologically intimidate the enemy. The result? A humiliating US withdrawal after a decade.
So far, no “Hegseth Fallacy” has popped up, but calling Hegseth “The Best and the Brightest” feels off. It reminds me of the Western classic, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Not that Hegseth has Clint Eastwood’s style, but more like two of the three character types in that film—the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Deep Blue
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In the latest international upheaval, Europe is taking the hardest hit. After 300 years of modern civilization and the churn of imperial powers, that era is gone, and a better tomorrow is nowhere in sight.
Europe has one problem: it cannot take care of itself. “No one really knows whether Europe would still be able to produce toothpaste if it weren’t for China,” the EU Chamber of Commerce said.
Europe doesn’t make toothpaste; it sells luxury brands. Fine — look at the latest news. Reuters reports that the U.S.-Israel-Iran war has delivered a blow to European luxury labels. Sales at Dubai’s upscale malls, packed with wealthy shoppers, have fallen 50 percent, and LVMH, France’s largest luxury group, says wealthy Middle Eastern customers have paused spending in Europe because of the conflict in the Gulf region.
The New York Times, in a piece headlined “Europe Is Done With Appeasing Trump”, lays out several of Europe’s current pains.
“The barrage of tariffs that opened the second Trump administration, aimed indiscriminately at friend and foe; the brazen demands that Denmark cede Greenland to the United States, and now the absence of any consultation with European allies before joining Israel in an attack on Iran that has affected the entire world, have erased any illusion among most Europeans that Mr. Trump is anything but an unpredictable, vindictive and uncontrollable danger,” it wrote.
Trump’s latest move is to impose a blockade on all Iranian ports from Monday, adding another barrier in the Strait of Hormuz. The U.S. president has repeatedly said, with obvious satisfaction, that America has oil and natural gas, and that oil shipping blockage cannot bring the United States to its knees. In other words, if Iran wants a war of attrition, the White House is ready to go all the way. America’s NATO allies, meanwhile, make clear they will “decline to join in.” Europe’s oil supply is already under pressure: Russian oil and gas are cut off, and Middle Eastern shipping now faces a second lock. So is Trump punishing Iran, or Europe?
“Last year, export controls imposed by Beijing on seven rare earth elements and the magnets made from them had especially severe consequences. China is a global leader in the production of these critical raw materials, which are widely used in electric motors, smartphones, and numerous everyday electronic devices,” Deutsche Welle reported. “The EU Chamber of Commerce said nearly one-third of its member companies indicated in a questionnaire survey at the beginning of this year that their business had been affected by China’s export control measures.”
The EU Chamber of Commerce knows perfectly well that China-EU relations have been pulled off course by the United States, and that Europe has not shaped its foreign and trade policy around its own interests. It has even had to tear out 5G networks built by Huawei and ZTE, while Chinese electric vehicles face restrictions. That has only made China-EU ties more tangled. Europe can hardly be called arrogant now. Energy supplies are unstable, and rare earth constraints have turned it into an industrial power with nothing usable to work with. So what now?
Although calls to “de-risk” economic ties with China have persisted for years, many European companies continue to bet on the Chinese market. Over the past year, EU figures show that 26% of companies said they were relocating their supply chains to China, “a proportion twice that of companies choosing to move their supply chains out of China or establish a second hub overseas.” The trend is clearly still going strong.
Europe’s major powers, including France, Italy and Germany, all feel the need to break free from the manipulation and humiliation imposed by the United States, especially the Trump team. Europe has finally woken up and is now pushing for independence and autonomy, placing its national destiny firmly in its own hands.
Nothing in the world is difficult if you are willing to scale the heights. Europe becoming strong again is no dream, but starting over takes patience. I would say 300 years is enough for you to turn things around.
