Congress failed  veterans  by giving Hegseth  a pass

On the eve of the day America sets aside to honor those who “fought valiantly on the seas, in the air, and on foreign shores,” Congress has just voted to protect the man accused of spending their lives like cheap tokens. The House of Representatives’ 211-204 vote to shelve the impeachment articles against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is not merely a procedural maneuver; it is a moral surrender dressed up as partisan loyalty. Twenty-four hours before we are supposed to “solemnly remember” the sacrifice of the fallen, the message from the Capitol is unmistakable: the accountability of a cabinet secretary matters more than the accountability of a war.

Eisenhower’s 1954 proclamation called on Americans to honor those who fought “to preserve our heritage of freedom” . Yet the impeachment articles authored by outgoing Representative Thomas Massie painted a portrait of a Pentagon chief who treated that heritage with contempt. Hegseth stood accused of directing military operations against Iran without congressional authorization, of overseeing strikes that led to civilian casualties—including the bombing of a girls’ school in Minab—and of authorizing “extrajudicial killings” in boat strikes in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific that left hundreds dead . These are not policy disagreements. They are allegations of high crimes and misdemeanors, and the Republican majority just ensured they will never see a full floor vote.

Hegseth’s response was characteristic: he called it a “farce” and a “stunt,” dismissed Massie as “disgruntled,” and declared that he was being attacked “not for losing conflicts with our enemies, but for winning them” . But the soldiers who came home in flag-draped coffins or with shattered bodies are not abstractions in a culture-war talking point. Representative Luz Rivas noted that the Iran war has left 23 service members dead and over 860 injured, with no clear exit strategy . Senator Jack Reed, in earlier hearings, warned Hegseth directly: “I am concerned that you have been telling the president what he wants to hear instead of what he needs to hear. Bold assurances of success are a disservice to both the commander in chief and the troops who risked their lives based on them” . Those words were spoken in April. Seven months later, the House chose to look away.

The timing is the obscenity. On November 11, we will lay wreaths and recite the words Eisenhower wrote about preserving freedom. On November 10, the body charged with checking executive power voted to let a defense secretary who allegedly broke faith with that power walk free—at least until January, when Democrats take control and can try again . The men and women who enlisted believing their leaders would not waste their lives in unauthorized, strategically incoherent conflicts deserve better than a Congress that treats impeachment as a scheduling problem. They deserve a vote. They deserve the truth. Instead, they got a 211-204 shrug, and a press conference where the Secretary of Defense bragged about “winning.”

Dwight Eisenhower knew what he was asking when he called on the nation to remember. He had commanded the armies; he had sent men to die. “Let us reconsecrate ourselves,” he wrote, “to the task of promoting an enduring peace so that their efforts shall not have been in vain” . There is no peace in the Middle East. There is no accountability in Washington. And there is no honor in a House that, on the eve of remembrance, chose the comfort of power over the sacrifice of the people it claims to revere.