I look forward to an honest confirmation hearing, not a press show trial based on anonymous accusations.
On these pages 18 years ago I penned an article titled “More Troops, Please.” I was a young U.S. Army lieutenant who had just completed a combat tour in Iraq, and believed we needed more troops and a new strategy to turn the war around. I had seen a lot, been through a lot, and believed in my troops and the mission.
Ever since then, I have been fighting for our troops.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that op-ed launched my next mission—fighting for the warriors on the home front. Like many veterans of my generation, when I came home I jumped into a new mission—always looking for a way to channel the sense of purpose that had been unleashed in combat.
For me, that next mission meant taking over Vets for Freedom, an organization for veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. We traveled the country, stormed Capitol Hill, and returned to the battlefield to report on progress. We were young, bold and battle-hardened. Our passion was for the troops still fighting—and we had their backs.
We weren’t perfect, but we were always honest and earnest. We raised money honestly and spent it earnestly—to advance our cause. We weren’t political experts, but we were patriotic believers. Like veterans returning from any war, we drank beers to manage the reality of what we had faced. But we never did anything improper, and we treated everyone with respect. We had a new mission and fought for it.
In the 2008 election, we fought hard for John McCain to defeat Barack Obama. We were a bit naive, so we doubled down on our political spending at the very end, when other groups pulled back. It was a tactical mistake, which left us in debt (like most political campaigns). But I stayed with the organization until all the debt was paid off and outstanding contracts negotiated.
Shortly thereafter, I volunteered—again—to deploy overseas, this time to Afghanistan while Mr. Obama was president. Fighting and winning our wars was never political to me. I wanted to do my part again; like many warriors of my generation, I found the battlefield had a recurring pull on my passions. But the war wasn’t going well, and we all knew it.
By Pete Hegseth
