Truth in the Barrel with Amy McGrath
Oct 2, 2026 · 51 min · 14 segments
Is Our Military Antiquated? | Unfiltered How far behind is the United States on drone warfare? Is SECDEF Pete Hegseth slowing our progress even more? This week, Amy is joined by Ken Harbaugh…
Ken HarbaughGuest
Amy McGrathHost
My overall take, it is hard to ignore the culture warrior stuff because on one hand, it is so offensive for people actually serving.
It's actually undermining morale, because in many cases, his mockery is towards those who are serving.
And that is something a leader should never do, especially a leader who is supposed to be setting an example, because that has a A corrosive effect, a contagious effect, and I know that morale is suffering because of performances like this.
There was really, in his mind, an audience of one, and he wanted to demonstrate that he'll do whatever the president needs him to do to keep his job.
As far as the initiatives, look, even if there were some good ideas in there, the chance that this Pentagon with this leadership can implement any of them is next to zero because they are just so inept.
They are purging people with the strategic forethought and and years of experience, and they're purging them under the wildest theories.
And when you see someone like Donovan out or George out, General George, Admiral Halsey, these aren't woke admirals and generals.
In the case of at least two of those three, they had the temerity to directly challenge Hexeth.
When you're that insecure in your role that you cannot countenance somebody walking into your office and saying, sir, I think you might be wrong here.
I'm so glad you brought up the fact that you didn't think any, a lot of these initiatives would go anywhere.
My overall take, it is hard to ignore the culture warrior stuff because on one hand, it is so offensive for people actually serving.
It's actually undermining morale, because in many cases, his mockery is towards those who are serving.
And that is something a leader should never do, especially a leader who is supposed to be setting an example, because that has a A corrosive effect, a contagious effect, and I know that morale is suffering because of performances like this.
There was really, in his mind, an audience of one, and he wanted to demonstrate that he'll do whatever the president needs him to do to keep his job.
As far as the initiatives, look, even if there were some good ideas in there, the chance that this Pentagon with this leadership can implement any of them is next to zero because they are just so inept.
They are purging people with the strategic forethought and and years of experience, and they're purging them under the wildest theories.
And when you see someone like Donovan out or George out, General George, Admiral Halsey, these aren't woke admirals and generals.
In the case of at least two of those three, they had the temerity to directly challenge Hexeth.
When you're that insecure in your role that you cannot countenance somebody walking into your office and saying, sir, I think you might be wrong here.
I'm so glad you brought up the fact that you didn't think any, a lot of these initiatives would go anywhere.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.