USNS Harvey Milk

 

Secretary of State Pete Hegseth—who has created turmoil throughout the Pentagon and recklessly transmitted battle operational details over an unsecured Signal chat, and who now wants to deploy the Marines against American civilians—has waged a nonstop attack on American values. From the monumental (using mass deportation to erect a police state) to the cruel and petty, he dishonors the U.S. military that has often personified the best in America.

In that vein, Hegseth, reeking of white supremacy, decided to rename Navy vessels honoring those he claims do not reflect a “warrior ethos.” He is starting with USNS Harvey Milk—named for the assassinated civil rights icon who served in the Navy and in city government. Even conservatives are appalled. (“Allowing the Pentagon to make a petty and prejudicial move against the naming of a ship after Harvey Milk sullies that record and is no way to build esprit de corps in our military,” wrote John Fund, citing Milk’s robust defense of freedom.)

Strangely, all the ships targeting for renaming just happen to be named after people who are not White male heterosexuals: Thurgood Marshall (the first African American Supreme Court justice and the legal strategist behind the fight to end segregation); Ruth Bader Ginsburg (served on the Supreme Court and litigated in favor of equal rights for women in the military); Harriet Tubman (What?! More below); Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez (Hispanic labor leaders): Lucy Stone (suffragist); and Medgar Evers (slain civil rights leader). The ships named after these historic figures are John Lewis-class ships, whose lead vessel is named after the famed civil rights hero who was beaten within an inch of his life as a Freedom Rider and again at Selma, Alabama.

Wait. Harriet Tubman?! In case you did not know, she risked her life embarking on 19 journeys to spirit slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Moreover, she served in the military:

In 1863, Tubman took on the role of a scout and organized a group of spies. She recruited enslaved people interested in assisting the Union. Tubman helped Colonel James Montgomery coordinate the Combahee River Raid in South Carolina, which aimed to “harass whites and rescue freed slaves…. The raid was wildly successful with Montgomery’s troops burning down many plantations and freeing approximately 750 enslaved people. … With their newfound freedom, many of the formerly enslaved men opted to join the Union’s fight against the Confederacy (the South). To date, Tubman is recognized as the first woman in US history to both plan and lead a military raid. In June 2021, the Army inducted her into the Military Intelligence

No “warrior ethos” there?

There is no better illustration of the MAGA white supremacy mentality than this mean-spirited vendetta to eliminate the achievements of non-Whites, women, and LGBTQ+ Americans from history. Hegseth seeks to erase them from our history, just as he seeks to deploy the military to deport people MAGA believes are “poisoning the blood” of Americans. None of their sacrifices or service “count,” apparently, in the mind of the most pathetically unqualified and incompetent secretary of defense in American history.

Former House speaker Nancy Pelosi blasted the move. “The reported decision by the Trump Administration to change the names of the USNS Harvey Milk and other ships in the John Lewis-class is a shameful, vindictive erasure of those who fought to break down barriers for all to chase the American Dream,” she wrote. “Our military is the most powerful in the world—but this spiteful move does not strengthen our national security or the ‘warrior’ ethos.” She added that this constitutes “a surrender of a fundamental American value: to honor the legacy of those who worked to build a better country.”

Merriam-Webster defines “warrior” as “a person engaged or experienced in warfare broadly.

Every single one of the names Hegseth would replace unquestionably fits that definition. Just as each member of the military takes an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” these American heroes, who in many cases sacrificed their lives and/or liberty, fought tenaciously to bring America closer to its ideals, to move us forward toward a “more perfect nation” and to advance the very constitutional principles the military swears to defend.

What none did was abuse power, unleash the military on civilians, spread disinformation, advocate for an America defined by race and religion, stage an insurrection to overturn the results of a free and fair election, attack the rule of law, threaten judges, undermine science, weaponize the judicial system against political enemies, strip fellow Americans of long-established constitutional rights, intimidate the free press, denigrate women, grotesquely expand the powers of the presidency, or ally the United States with international dictators. That makes them unworthy in the eyes of the MAGA cult.

“Warrior” or “warrior ethos” has lost all meaning. We should stop using it. MAGA forces want to instill a vision of toxic masculinity that supplants American values, traditional ideals of heroism, and authentic military valor.

Americans should resist MAGA’s demented vision of America at every turn, insist on preserving military values (“Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage”), and defend the attributes (e.g., diversity, excellence, character, rule of law) that have made the United States armed forces the most formidable fighting force in history.

-Jennifer Rubin, The Contrarian