A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
We brought in Colonel Mark Cancian to react to these speeches. He's a Marine veteran with three decades of experience, including tours in Vietnam, Iraq and Operation Desert Storm. He is now senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Colonel, so what were you worried about what these speeches might be, and what did you think about what they actually turned out to be?
MARK CANCIAN: Well, Secretary Hegseth had not put out an agenda for this meeting, so many people speculated about what might happen, and some of those speculations were very dark. Fortunately, there was no purge of generals, there was no demand for endorsement of partisan policies. So that was a great relief.
MARTÍNEZ: You know, a lot of people heading into this meeting were thinking that this is kind of an unusual thing to do, considering how many people were flowing in from around the world. Even though maybe it wasn't what you feared it would be, is it still an unusual meeting to have?
CANCIAN: It was unprecedented. The first was the numbers were very high. There are often meetings of general officers, but the numbers are in the dozens. Here, there were several hundred brought in from around the world. And finally, there was no agenda. So there was tremendous speculation about what might actually be involved.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, Secretary Hegseth mentioned he'd review the Pentagon's definition of bullying and hazing to, quote, "empower leaders to enforce standards without fear of retribution or second-guessing." Colonel, tell us more about what the standards for bullying and hazing and how they've changed over the years.
CANCIAN: Well, during the Obama administration, the department changed its rules about hazing because there had been a number of incidents. So the department clamped down on hazing. Secretary Hegseth is going to ease those rules. And light hazing, you know, that can build esprit, but there's vulnerability to abuse to people getting hurt. So this is something that's going to have to be managed very carefully.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, do you have any concerns about leaders being able to enforce standards without fear of retribution?
CANCIAN: Many leaders have said that they worried about imposing standards because of the possibility of anonymous complaints, the possibility people complaining that the standards were too harsh. So what Hegseth is going to have to do is balance his desire for enforcement of standards with allowance for troops to bring abuses to the attention of higher authorities.
MARTÍNEZ: Now, the president used the rhetoric of war when talking about cities such as Portland and Chicago. What do you think the impact is of that language?
CANCIAN: That has received a lot of attention. Now, he has been using that language since the beginning of the presidency, and, of course, he's written executive orders, identifying antifa and the cartels as terrorist threats. So that's not really a change. How this gets implemented will be important. The president said that cities might be used as training for the military, for the National Guard. If he authorizes the use of lethal force, that's a huge change and a huge problem because the military is just not trained on the rights of citizens and when the use of lethal force is appropriate in this country.
MARTÍNEZ: Colonel Mark Cancian, Marine Corps veteran, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Colonel, thank you.
CANCIAN: Thanks for having me on the show.
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