The Atlantic reported last night that self-styled “Secretary of War” Pete Hegseth fired another general this week. The victim this time was Army Lieutenant General Brett Sylvia, the director of Strategy, Plans, and Policy at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also known as the J5. Hegseth had also fired his predecessor, Army Lieutenant General Joseph McGee. “Now is not the time when you’d want to lose the J5,” a former Joint Chiefs of Staff official said, referring to all of the talk in recent days that President Trump could soon resume the war against Iran. “This person would serve as a critical link between the operational force, the department policy, and the White House.”

Department of Defense officials told The Atlantic that the rationale for Hegseth firing Sylvia mirrored that of others pushed out before him: Hegseth lost confidence in him, and he did not get along with the top civilian in charge of policy, Elbridge Colby, the No. 3 leader at the Pentagon. In September, during his State of the Force speech, Hegseth said that the Pentagon had fired approximately 10% of its generals and admirals, and was eliminating another 10% of senior-officer positions.