The Leaks from Hegseth’s ‘Book’ Are a Warning

(Photo illustration by Bill Kuchman/The Bulwark | Photos: Getty, Shutterstock)THE WASHINGTON POST REPORTED SUNDAY that several of America’s senior military commanders have warned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that continuing the current pace and scale of operations against Iran risks weakening the military’s ability to respond to crises elsewhere. The warnings appeared in the highly classified Secretary of Defense Orders Book.The most eye-catching part of the Post story was that several senior commanders registered “non-concurs” with continuing some deployments. That sounds dramatic because it is—not because non-concurs are unusual in this process, but because of what they tell us about the condition of the force after six months of war.FIRST, A LITTLE PENTAGONOLOGY.The Book is essentiall