Adm. Alvin Holsey is leaving less than a year into his tenure, and as the Pentagon escalates attacks against boats in the Caribbean Sea.

© Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, via Getty Images

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered unusually strong criticism of Russia, just as Ukraine seeks American Tomahawk missiles.

© Nicolas Tucat/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Readers respond to a guest essay that put Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech in a more favorable light.

Despite some rude provocations, he outlined a nuanced vision of the military.

The Trump administration is a mockery of the idea of meritocracy.

Readers sharply criticize the speeches by the president and the secretary of defense. Also: A cynical order from the Supreme Court.

With the gutting of a federal agency, the Trump administration is asserting their view of women’s place in society.

The military was again used as a backdrop for Trump’s clashes in America’s culture wars, testing the armed services’ nonpartisan, apolitical nature.

The government must protect classified information, but journalists have the right to publish it.

President Trump and his defense secretary say they want to return to the era when America won wars. They largely ignore the greatest accomplishment of the past 80 years: avoiding superpower conflict.