Videos: ‘PREPARE FOR WAR’: Hegseth reveals Pentagon's new mission

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth addressed U.S. military leaders at a Marine Corps base in Quantico, Virginia, and announced that the War Department’s new mission is “preparing for war.”

At the beginning of Tuesday’s rare meeting of top military leaders, Hegseth introduced U.S. military leaders to the Department of War and announced that the “era of the Department of Defense is over.”

“To ensure peace, we must prepare for war,” Hegseth said. “From this moment forward, the only mission of the newly restored Department of War is this warfighting, preparing for war, and preparing to win, unrelenting and uncompromising in that pursuit, not because we want war—no one here wants war—but it’s because we love peace.”

Hegseth warned that if America’s enemies “foolishly” choose to challenge the U.S. military, they will “be crushed by the violence, precision, and ferocity of the War Department.”

“In other words, to our enemies, FAFO,” the secretary of war added. “If necessary, our troops can translate that for you.”

Hegseth explained that the U.S. military lost its way by promoting leaders based on gender quotas, race, and other diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. He suggested that U.S. political leaders “set the wrong compass heading” for the Pentagon.

“We lost our way,” Hegseth stated. “We became the woke department. But not anymore.”

Contrasting the previous direction of the military with the military’s current direction under President Donald Trump, Hegseth emphasized how the Trump administration has taken steps to “remove the social justice, politically correct and toxic ideological garbage that had infected our department, to rip out the politics.”

“No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses, no more climate change worship, no more division, distraction or gender delusions,” Hegseth said. “No more debris. As I’ve said before and will say again, we are done with that sh-t.”

The Post Millennial reported that the secretary of war presented the Pentagon’s top military leaders with 10 new directives, including the implementation of fitness tests, standards for grooming and fitness, the removal of woke language, a return to traditional military standards, holding service members to the “highest male standard,” an end to “walking on eggshells” for military command, the return of merit-based promotions, a reduction in mandatory training, the return of tough drill sergeants for basic training, and the development of a winning culture at the War Department.