https://www.politico.com/news/2021/06/23/top-general-fires-back-criticism-military-woke-495703
I suspect many of us can remember the former Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff General Mark Milley testifying alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on June 23, 2021 at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. In this setting Milley was asked about reports that the U.S. Military Academy at West Point taught critical race theory along with a seminar on “white rage.”
Miley responded “I want to understand white rage, and I’m white. … What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? … I want to find that out. I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military … of being ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there.”
Well in typical bureaucratic Pentagon fashion on April 9, 2021, Secretary Austin issued a memorandum announcing immediate actions to counter extremist activity in the Department and establishing a Countering Extremist Activity Working Group (CEAWG), building upon the lessons learned through individual unit stand downs.
In addition, Austin ordered an independent study to get “greater fidelity” on extremism in the ranks. We recently learned that the think tank tasked with the report, the Institute for Defense Analyses (IDA), “found no evidence that the number of violent extremists in the military is disproportionate” to U.S. society. A review of Pentagon data suggested “fewer than 100 substantiated cases per year of extremist activity by members of the military in recent years.”
So, three years later after General Miley’s “Inquiring Minds Want to Know “ moment we got the answer that anyone who has ever served in the military could have told him. Yes, there are extremists in the military as there are the makeup of the general population from which the military draws its force. But yet once again, bureaucrats have slandered the reputation of many honorable men and women who place their very lives in jeopardy defending this nation under the mantra of political correctness. Meanwhile Rome burns while we dither.
2 comments
John, GREAT question and yes “Leadership” would say placing former Army Major Nidal Hussein in an extremist category is i islamophobic 🙁
I wonder if the claims of extremism are biased against white soldiers, sailors and marines – and that is part of the recruiting problem. The FBI has certainly focused on white extremism and has said so. Why should anyone believe it is any different in the military. Is former Army Major Nidal Hussein in an extremist category or is it islamophobic to place him in that category.