Reply to Pete Hedgseth for Secretary of Defense

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Personally, I want to see Hegseth go all Kavanaugh during his confirmation: "Yes, we drank beer. My friends and I. Boys and girls. Yes, we drank beer. I liked beer. Still like beer. We drank beer."[/quote]

Me too. I don't care that he used to binge drink, as long as he doesn't do it while he's SECDEF. And, he seems to socialize in circles were drinking is just extremely common.  So it's even clear that he has a drinking problem.  Also, no one had a problem with McCrystal.[/quote]

lol He has admitted to not being able to control his drinking but you do you. Appoint the drunk captain who has been fired from two vet scamming  non profits. If something bad happens you can always blame Nancy Pelosi.  :lol:

He will be confirmed without hearing by Wednesday.[/quote]

He hasn't admitted it. He said he used to drink a lot and that if confirmed, he won't drink during his term as SECDEF. The vet organizations have also come out with public statements that Pete wasn't forced out, that he left on good terms. So Im going to ignore that entirely. The only thing they can seem to find on the guy is that he drinks. I hate to break it to people, but people in the military often binge drink. At the officer level, in the recent past, officers had to attend dinners where they were encouraged to drink as much as possible. I dont condone that at all, but it was a fact of military culture at the time he served. He may or may not have a drinking problem. Many people go from existing and partaking in that culture to just being normal. [/quote]

tell me you’ve never known an alcoholic without telling me!

Here’s a hint: being so unable to control your drinking that you have to commit to white-knuckle sobriety is not a good sign. Normal drinkers can have a beer with dinner (or even get a little drunk from time to time) without raising concerns about their ability to handle their jobs. [/quote]

But we don't know that Pete is addicted to alcohol. It's been raised as an issue and he is taking it off the table by pledging not to drink.

And you are missing my point. People can drink heavily in environments where that is expected and encouraged, and that doesn't make them an alcoholic. Most people can just choose to stop drinking. Not everyone who drinks to excess at some point in their life is an alcoholic. Most aren't. So if Pete is an average person, I would expect that he could just stop drinking at any moment, and probably only miss it during events like toasting the New Year. This isn't the big deal people are making it out to be. [/quote]

Alcohol Use Disorder is a spectrum. Hedgseth is clearly not someone that has a physiological dependency on alcohol and needs it to forestall withdrawal. He seems fit and generally sound of mind. But he's certainly part of a heavy drinking culture. You can see it every day at country clubs and certain bars. The khaki and golf shirt crowd. It's part of their culture. There are some men that never grow out of frat sensibilities. For these guys, going out and drinking is how they socialize and destress. For some, they can roll like that for a long time. But alcohol is an inherently addictive drug, and it will take take down others who don't stop in time.

Telling the world that he will quit drinking if and only if he becomes Secretary of Defense of the most powerful country on Earth is an admission that he has a problem with alcohol. Which is good. Admitting you have a problem with an addictive substance is the first step. But under no circumstances should the defense of the nation be dependent on someone's journey to sobriety. That is insane. He may not go into delirium tremens when he ultimately stops. But he will be uncomfortable and anxious and have some troubles with emotional regulation when he no longer has recourse to drinking. And that'll last for a while.

And meanwhile, while he's going through this, he will be obliged to deal with Russia, China, Syria, sub-Sahara Africa, the changes in warfare like drones, managing 3 million people, and an $850,000,000,000 budget.

I think Republicans are nuts for entrusting the nations security to someone who is only now making promises to quit drinking but only if he really has to. No one has any problem with people in long term sobriety. George Bush had his issues and quit drinking ages ago. Trump doesn't drink because of family history. Same with Biden.

Because they were men who recognized that alcohol can be a big problem. And they dealt with it decades ago. Meanwhile, Hedgseth is signing NDAs and blacking out and making promises to be better.

No thank you for Secretary of Defense.

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