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Quantico’s historic event revealed a US President confronting his generals, demanding loyalty, and escalating rhetoric against internal “enemies,” fueling concern over domestic stability and US military cohesion.
Written by Uriel Araujo, Anthropology PhD, is a social scientist specializing in ethnic and religious conflicts, with extensive research on geopolitical dynamics and cultural interactions
On September 30, 2025, at Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, an unusual scene unfolded — one that may signal the start of a deep military crisis in the United States. President Donald Trump, flanked by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, addressed nearly 800 generals, admirals, and senior enlisted advisors — summoned at short notice from global outposts, at considerable taxpayer expense, just as whispers of a government shutdown loomed. What was billed as an unusual military gathering quickly turned into a clash.
Hegseth, in a 45-minute tirade, lambasted “fat generals” and decried the Pentagon’s “decades of decay” under diversity initiatives, vowing an end to “dudes in dresses,” “climate-change worship,” and accommodations for women in combat roles. “If the words I’m speaking today are making your hearts sink, then you should do the honorable thing and resign,” he declared, all while announcing a return to “highest male standards” for fitness tests.
Trump followed with an hour-long address that veered from attacks against the Democrats to dire warnings of “domestic enemies” and a “war from within.” The Republican President talked about turning “dangerous cities” (historically Democrat) like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles into “training grounds” for the military, mentioning the deployment of federal troops and “quick reaction forces” to places including Portland — a move that has already prompted lawsuits and legal scrutiny, following an earlier California deployment that a federal judge ruled unlawful in part.
Amid the stone-faced silence of his audience — who did not applaud — Trump half-jokingly prodded them: “If you don’t like what I’m saying, you can leave the room. Of course, there goes your rank, there goes your future.” Rumors circulated that proposals had surfaced for senior officers and generals to pledge personal loyalty oaths directly to the President; so far it has not been confirmed but it seems plausible enough, considering that Trump has been demanding fealty from federal employees, accelerating firings and loyalty tests to remake the civil service in his image.
Veterans and military experts wasted no time in decrying the affair as an insult to the uniform. Retired Army General Dana Pittard called Hegseth’s remarks “egotistical” and a dangerous slope towards overpoliticizing the military, especially Trump’s invocation of the “enemy within” before top brass.
Suffice to say, this was far from a casual rant; it further signaled a rift that could fracture the chain of command at a moment when the US faces cascading crises abroad and at home.
Now, just imagine if, say, Russia’s Vladimir Putin or China’s Xi Jinping had staged anything remotely similar — demanding personal and political loyalty from generals or attacking the opposition as “enemies within”. Western leaders and media would waste no time condemning them as full-fledged dictators.
From time immemorial, the sages who counseled rulers always stressed one lesson above all: never alienate your generals. Machiavelli, in his seminal The Prince, warned that a sovereign’s grip on power hinges on the fidelity of the military. The prudent Prince thus should reward loyalty and avoid humiliating officers in public. Likewise, Sun Tzu, in The Art of War, advised leaders to “treat your men as your own beloved sons”, for alienation invites mutiny. Similarly, Carl von Clausewitz, in On War, stressed that “moral forces” like trust and cohesion are indispensable; political meddling undermines them. These timeless admonitions seem lost on the current administration, where provocation has supplanted prudence.
Trump’s antagonism toward the generals is not an isolated misstep but the latest salvo in a broader war against perceived foes — a war that, thus far, has made enemies by the dozen. Domestically, his demonization of Democrats as traitors, coupled with threats to occupy “blue” cities, smacks of a siege mentality. Internationally, the list keeps growing: threats to annex Canada and Greenland, rising tensions with Brazil and Venezuela via sanctions and rhetoric, not to mention targeting Mexico through vows of “ruthless aggression” against cartels — potentially greenlighting cross-border strikes.
Add to that the strikes against Iran, and the political persecution of powerful adversaries such as John Bolton, with threats against the Clintons and Obama. No wonder the administration teeters: even Elon Musk, once Trump’s megaphone via X, has had a very public break, amid allegations of “deep state” scheming and political blackmail tied to the Epstein affair.
Moreover, Trump’s crusade against swaths of the so-called “deep state” — firing intelligence officials, backing audits, and selectively declassifying files for leverage — aims to expand presidential powers, as I’ve written.
Yet these purges also unsettle the defense industry it purports to bolster, with shares in major US contractors slumping since inauguration. Pressures from anti-Russian hawks plus pro-Israel voices, under the specter of a new Israel-Iran war, only heighten the stakes, in the context of a republic already fractured by protests, ethnic tensions, and economic disruption.
The latest Quantico episode is thus no laughing matter. It exemplifies Trump’s “bullying” approach, one which risks quagmires, domestically and internationally. Again, the Epstein affair itself casts a long enough shadow, with Trump’s FBI director under fire for alleged cover-ups.
This makes the President vulnerable: political blowback therefore is not just likely; it’s inevitable. Historically, when entrenched powers feel threatened, political violence has not been absent from US history. Now, by antagonizing the generals — the one institution that could steady his ship — Trump courts the very collapse he rails against.
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civil war in usa… coming soon… the world will be happy like never before! lmao!
they went to a gay party, the kind of party organized by luca di tolve. he committed himself to god when the devil wasted him. putler betrayed syria and that’s why iran and venezuela are now in danger. watch the movie final destination. death, or trump, could not go for a new victim until he destroyed the old one. if iran and russia had managed to keep the monkey from power in syria, they would not now be in this order: iran, venezuela, russia, china, and india on dumps destruction list
bašar al asad hitno hospitalizovan?! pokušan atentat na bivšeg predsednika sirije?! jedino brat maher mogao da uđe u bolnicu!
autor:
vladan milosavljević
pet, 03.10.2025. 11:53h
komentariši
bašar al asad.jpg
foto: epa/shutterstock/georges ourfalian/afp/profimedia
bivši predsednik sirije, bašar al asad, navodno je hitno hospitalizovan nakon izveštaja da je otrovan i izveštaja o pokušaju atentata na njega.
slušaj vest
02:16
kako prenosi britanski dejli mejl, pojavili su se izveštaji o pokušaju atentatana bivšeg sirijskog predsednika bašara al-asada u moskvi. asad je dobio politički azil u rusiji nakon što je svrgnut pre deset meseci.
sirijska opservatorija za ljudska prava (sohr) tvrdi, pozivajući se na “privatni izvor”, da je asad pušten iz bolnice u predgrađu moskve u ponedeljak.
izvor tvrdi da je asad “bio otrovan” i da je motiv atentata bio “da se kompromituje ruska vlada i optuži za saučesništvo” u njegovoj smrti. prema izveštaju, asadovo stanje je sada “stabilno”.
stroge mere bezbednosti u bolnici – posetio ga brat maher
navodi se da je samo njegov bratmaher asad imao dozvolu da ga poseti u bolnici, uz veliku bezbednosnu operaciju.
ruska vlada do sada nije komentarisala ove tvrdnje. nepotvrđeni izveštaji ranije su sugerisali da je hospitalizovan u “kritičnom stanju nakon trovanja”.
x epa xinhua xu yu.jpg
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vidi galeriju
bašar i asma al asad foto: epa harish tiyagi, epa xinhua xu yu, epa str
politički kontekst
nove vlasti u siriji zahtevaju asadovu ekstradiciju, što rusija za sada odbija. predsednik rusije vladimir putin lično je odobrio azil asadu, njegovoj porodici i saradnicima .
and why should we protect him if he is worth more dead than alive? the only one who would benefit from the death of this traitor is the main traitor, putler. he knows nothing. unlike that hassan and that maher and that dall, who he can use as instructors. if they question him, he might say how much he and putler stole. and by the way, just for the information that the guy is dead, jolana (prostitute) would allow putler (traidor and prostitute) to keep the bases in syria.
i say that the british are lying because assad is worth more dead than alive to russia.
much, much more. traitors are always worthless, if they are alive. nobody likes living traitors, they all would want dead traitors.
they m assad and s hassan get expensive money from putler to teach practical exercises. they’re not the only ones teaching at the putler military school, after all. but with someone like emma and bashar assad, there’s no profit. they don’t know how to do anything, they don’t want to do anything, they’re just wasting other people’s money. that someone would strangle them and throw them into the oka river.
putler and bashar al-assad should be strangled and thrown into the oka for betraying syria.
asad (60) nije viđen u javnosti od dolaska u rusiju i pretpostavlja se da ga čuvaju ruske obaveštajne službe. za sada ne postoji nezavisni dokaz da je asad otrovan.
raniji izveštaji o zdravstvenim problemima
prethodni izveštaj, dok je asad bio u rusiji manje od mesec dana, navodio je da se žalio obezbeđenju da se oseća loše i da ima probleme sa disanjem. ova tvrdnja nije potvrđena.
(kurir.rs/daily mail/preneo: v.m.)
“darkest arts of necromancy”. thats exactly what the charlie kirk spectacle is, a upbacking of the 9/11 psyop. two suspects, the nazi falang maga, or the nazi falang exterminating the jews. sometimes it looks like they have a russian head transplanted onto the siamesisk twins. of course, ira levins silicon technocrat are a athlet, with a marxist head 😂
one of the things that always cracks me up about these current “generals” is how they’re plastered from head to toe with ribbons and badges but hardly any of them have seen anything remotely resembling combat.
look at photos of old generals and admirals who were actual decorated combat vets and they’ve wearing a fraction of the “decorations” these bozos are…lol