Former Army Major General Randy Manner called Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s firing of top Army officers in middle of a war “extremely dangerous,” as it sends the message to other officers to keep silent about the course of the war, Newsweek reported on April 6, citing Gen. Manner’s Easter Day appearance on the (mainstream media-connected) “Alex Witt Reports” of MS News. Manner compared those firings to the actions of Stalin and Hitler, “who purged the best officers that they had before each of the wars they engaged in.” The danger lies in their “mak[ing] people less willing to give their candid military advice for fear that doing so could cost them their jobs. And that has an impact on the conduct of war. If there’s ever a time that top military commanders and the president need candid advice, it is during a war,” he explained “You want officers who are willing to speak truth to power.”
Earlier, in a March 15 interview with MS Now, Manner characterized Hegseth as “a potential war criminal,” for his repeated statements of “raining death and destruction from the sky all day long,” “no quarter, no mercy,” and the like. Hegseth could face trial by an international tribunal for war crimes against humanity, and President Donald Trump could not protect him, the General warned.
