These removals reflect a deliberate and accelerating effort by the Trump administration to reshape the U.S. military in its own ideological image, prioritizing loyalty over institutional knowledge at a moment when the nation is actively at war. The timing is what makes this particularly striking. These firings did not occur during a period of peace or transition, instead they occurred while American aircraft are being shot down over Iran and U.S. forces are engaged in the most significant Middle East conflict in decades.

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