'This Speech So Far Is Not My Own': Hegseth Recites Donald Rumsfeld Speech 'Practically Verbatim' — Transcript

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1. 0:00Congress, Deputy Secretary-Secretary
2. 0:01Finberg, this would not happen without
3. 0:03you, without him, without he's led
4. 0:05without what he's led. Today's not
5. 0:07possible and the reforms you're going to
6. 0:08hear about today are not possible.
7. 0:10Mr. Chairman,
8. 0:11members of the Joint Chiefs, secretaries
9. 0:13of our military departments,
10. 0:16Under Secretary Duffy as well, without
11. 0:18what happened what is happening at ANS,
12. 0:19this is not possible either.
13. 0:21Acquisition professionals, corporate
14. 0:23leaders,
15. 0:24distinguished officials from the
16. 0:25Department of War, defense industry
17. 0:27officials, good afternoon and welcome. A
18. 0:29lot of you came a long way for this
19. 0:31and we are grateful that you took the
20. 0:33time to be here with us right now. We
21. 0:34think this topic is that important for
22. 0:37the future of our nation.
23. 0:40Today I'd like to talk to you about an
24. 0:41adversary
25. 0:43that poses a threat, a very serious
26. 0:45threat
27. 0:46to the United States of America. This
28. 0:48adversary is
29. 0:50one of the world's last bastions of
30. 0:51central planning.
31. 0:53It governs by dictating in five-year
32. 0:56plans.
33. 0:58From a single capital, it attempts to
34. 1:00impose its demands across time zones,
35. 1:02continents continents, oceans
36. 1:05and beyond. With brutal consistency, it
37. 1:08stifles free thought
38. 1:10and crushes new ideas. It disrupts the
39. 1:12defense of the United States and places
40. 1:14the lives
41. 1:15of our men and women in uniform at risk.
42. 1:20Perhaps this sounds like the former
43. 1:22Soviet Union, but that enemy is long
44. 1:24gone.
45. 1:25The foe I'm talking about is more subtle
46. 1:27and implacable.
47. 1:29You may think I'm describing one of the
48. 1:31last decrepit dictators of the world,
49. 1:34but their day, too,
50. 1:35is almost certainly past. And they
51. 1:38cannot match the size and strength of
52. 1:39this adversary. Nor am I talking about
53. 1:43the Chinese Communist Party.
54. 1:45The adversary I'm talking about is much
55. 1:48closer to home.
56. 1:51It's the Pentagon
57. 1:52bureaucracy.
58. 1:54Not the people, but the process. Not the
59. 1:56civilians, but the system.
60. 1:59Not the men and women in uniform, but
61. 2:01the uniformity of thought and action
62. 2:04that is too often imposed on them.
63. 2:07In the Pentagon, despite this era of
64. 2:09scarce resources taxed by mountain
65. 2:11mounting threats,
66. 2:13money disappears into duplicative duties
67. 2:15and bloated bureaucracy. Not because of
68. 2:17greed,
69. 2:18but because of gridlock.
70. 2:20Innovation is stifled, not by ill
71. 2:22intent, but by institutional inertia.
72. 2:26Just as we must transform America's
73. 2:28military capability to meet changing
74. 2:30threats, we must transform the way
75. 2:32Department works and what it works on.
76. 2:34We must build a department where each of
77. 2:36the dedicated people here,
78. 2:39especially the true entrepreneurs and
79. 2:41innovators from our industrial base,
80. 2:44can apply their immense talents to
81. 2:46defend America. Where they have the
82. 2:48resources, access, information, and
83. 2:51freedom to perform.
84. 2:54Our challenge is to trans- transform not
85. 2:56just the way we deter and defend,
86. 2:59but the way we conduct our daily
87. 3:01business.
88. 3:03The modernization of the Department of
89. 3:05Defense
90. 3:07is a matter of immense urgency.
91. 3:09In fact, it's not an exaggeration
92. 3:12to say that it's a matter of life and
93. 3:14death.
94. 3:15Ultimately, of every American.
95. 3:19Now, I'm going to let you in on a little
96. 3:21secret.
97. 3:22The speech so far is not my own.
98. 3:28Those words are practically verbatim
99. 3:31from a speech given by Secretary of
100. 3:33Defense Donald Rumsfeld
101. 3:36on September 10th,
102. 3:382001.
103. 3:41A near carbon copy,
104. 3:4424 years later.
105. 3:47Now, the world changed the day after he
106. 3:49gave that speech on 9/11
107. 3:53and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
108. 3:54began.
109. 3:56As a result, Secretary Rumsfeld never
110. 3:58quite had the full opportunity to
111. 4:00implement many of his reforms. To quote
112. 4:03him or paraphrase him again,
113. 4:06we went to war with the army we had,
114. 4:09not the army he or we wanted.
115. 4:13Today, the need for Pentagon
116. 4:15transformation, not just reform, is even
117. 4:18more urgent than it was when Secretary
118. 4:20Rumsfeld spoke those words nearly a
119. 4:22quarter century ago.
120. 4:25And his words are just as true now as
121. 4:27they were then.
122. 4:29The threat environment that we face is
123. 4:30advanced and multifaceted. Technology is
124. 4:33evolving at an accelerated pace. The
125. 4:35information landscape has become
126. 4:36increasingly segmented and personal
127. 4:40and exploited by our enemies. Many of
128. 4:42our adversaries, as you know, don't wear
129. 4:43in uniforms and use civilians as human
130. 4:45shields. Our enemies
131. 4:47often activate under the threshold of
132. 4:50armed conflict, the gray zone, and
133. 4:53intend to destroy us from within. The
134. 4:54world seems smaller and more familiar,
135. 4:57yet at the same time more complex.
136. 5:01As I alluded to in my Quantico speech a
137. 5:04few weeks ago, today we're undertaking a
138. 5:05department-wide transformation
139. 5:08of requirements, acquisition, and
140. 5:11foreign military sales.
141. 5:13Addressing a core function of what we do
142. 5:16at the War Department. Identifying what
143. 5:18our warfighters need,
144. 5:20how we buy those capabilities,
145. 5:22and then how we share those capabilities
146. 5:24with our allies and partners. All in
147. 5:26service
148. 5:27of decisively winning
149. 5:29any war that we must wage.