El enfoque de Donald Trump hacia las fuerzas armadas de Estados Unidos está destruyendo activamente al ejército, según Margaret Donovan, abogada y veterana JAG del Ejército, quien detalló sus preocupaciones en una entrevista con William Kristol de The Bulwark el jueves.

Donovan señaló el liderazgo del secretario de Defensa Pete Hegseth como un factor principal del problema. "You know, you get somebody like Secretary Hegseth in charge of the Department of Defense, and that's what you get," dijo, en referencia a un bombardeo fallido en Irán que mató a 120 niñas escolares.

"You get this harebrained operation, and the very first strike, something that, nearly every former military lawyer, probably current military lawyers, if they could speak freely would consider a war crime, or otherwise unauthorized under the law of armed conflict," Donovan le dijo a Kristol. El derecho de los conflictos armados, anclado en los Convenios de Ginebra, establece el marco jurídico que rige la conducción de las operaciones militares, incluida la distinción entre combatientes y civiles y la proporcionalidad en el uso de la fuerza. "You have that, and lest you thought that was a fluke, that sort of rushing into an operation ill-prepared and not fully thought out in terms of your legal basis. We have February 28th, and so that's the opening of the Iran War."

Donovan argumentó que Hegseth ha politizado abiertamente al ejército por নির্দেশ de Trump, erosionando su meritocracia, largamente respetada, al premiar o castigar a los soldados en función de sus lealtades políticas percibidas.

"It is completely unusual for the Secretary of Defense to go by name down a list of potential promotions and decide I'm just going to pick a few people that maybe he read about on his X feed or God knows what else, and pull them off," dijo Donovan. Según la tradición militar de Estados Unidos, los ascensos de oficiales son evaluados por juntas de selección específicas de cada servicio que revisan los historiales de desempeño, y los ascensos de alto rango requieren confirmación del Senado, un proceso diseñado para aislar las decisiones de promoción de la interferencia partidista. "It undermines the entire system that the military is built on, which is that you are promoted based on merit, based on your experience, and based on your capabilities. And not because, who knows what's informing Secretary Hegseth's men and most of the rest of the cabinet, it's whatever they see on their ex-feed that day."

Subrayó el carácter profundamente perturbador de estas decisiones, especialmente cuando afectan a oficiales de combate condecorados. "So it is very disruptive, I think, all the way down the line, because particularly when you see these officers that people owe their lives to, excuse me, quite literally, who have been to combat with these men and women, and seeing them get sort of picked off because the strong implication is that the secretary has deemed them politically dislikable. And there's just virtually no evidence of that in their military careers. It's extremely disruptive."

Cuando Kristol preguntó por las consecuencias más amplias para el ejército, Donovan dijo que está "extremely" preocupada.

"I'm as worried as any other military veteran who's looking at this and is just kind of horrified by what is going on and hoping that everybody that is still in uniform is holding the line," explicó Donovan. "And standing up for the principles and remembering the oath they took, whether they were an officer or enlisted."

Añadió: "I mean, the other troubling piece to that, and I know we don't have to go into detail about this now, but I worry about the promotions. I also worry about the military justice. When I wasn't overseas doing strike cell stuff, I was a military prosecutor back in the United States when I was domestic. You know, what I have seen especially with the sort of aviation misconduct over the past couple months, is if you are doing something that is deemed MAGA, or you are doing a flyover past Kid Rock's house, then you're fine. You're not going to get in trouble, and there's no military discipline for you. But there's a different standard for everybody else."

En un informe separado de julio, The Daily Mail señaló que el ejército está tan politizado que altos funcionarios, incluidos Hegseth y el general Dan Caine, presidente del Estado Mayor Conjunto, son acusados de no transmitir al presidente las observaciones de las tropas.

"Two MAGA-connected Republican lawmakers, who were granted anonymity to speak candidly, have shared their concerns about Trump's military leaders," informó el Mail.

También en julio, el macroeconomista Dean Baker dedujo que la solicitud militar de US$1.5 billones para llevar adelante la guerra en Irán costará a cada hogar un promedio de US$4,600. En febrero, Joseph Bosco, quien sirvió para el secretario de Defensa Donald Rumsfeld durante la presidencia de George W. Bush, advirtió que el ejército está perdiendo su grandeza bajo Trump. Para él, fue la actitud transaccional de Trump hacia la política exterior lo que llevó a traiciones a aliados de larga data como Ucrania y Taiwán.

"History will brand the U.S. failure to ensure Ukraine's victory and prevent Taiwan's fall as the time when America fell from greatness and her 'cunning' but miscalculating enemies plunged the world into a new global conflict," escribió Bosco en The Hill.