Last Thursday, we celebrated our American Armed Forces Veterans for their service to our Country, and for fighting to preserve the American Way of Life. I shared some good stories about my service in the United States Marine Corps with friends, family and old comrades I had the honor to serve with.
Sadly, I have serious concerns about our current military readiness to face the foes that threaten us today. This concern hits me on a very personal level as my eldest son is currently serving in the United States Navy. Every parent of a child in service always has concerns, but this is different. I have not seen this level of social manipulation in our Armed Forces ever. This socialization of our military sprang from the minds of politicians in the Executive Branch, carried through by top tier military officers down the ranks to the enlisted. Let me be perfectly clear: Our current military leaders, as instructed by Leftist politicians, are indoctrinating the troops in fundamentally contradictory and distorted narratives about our Country, our history and our identity. This is dangerous.
General Lloyd Austin was nominated to be the Secretary of Defense in the Biden White House on December 7, 2020. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on January 22, 2021. He very quickly addressed his concerns for the top threat facing the United States today: Right-Wing White National extremism among the enlisted ranks of the military.
On February 5, 2021, Secretary Austin announced that every unit of the United States Military; Active, Reserve, and Guard would be required to stand down within the next 60 days in order to conduct “sensitivity” training. The training was focused around discussions and procedures for reporting suspected, or actual, extremist behaviors. In my opinion, this was an extremely counter-productive boondoggle. On a personal note, I have heard from several people in active enlisted service that they felt that they were being unfairly labeled as an “Enemy of America”, simply for wanting to serve. Having a demoralized fighting force is not a key ingredient to an effective military.
General Mark Milley became the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on July 25, 2019. He was nominated by President Donald Trump and swiftly confirmed by the Senate. In my opinion, his confirmation was a huge mistake.
The protests/riots that occurred nationwide sparked by the death of George Floyd, and allegedly orchestrated by the BLM movement, led to the “wokeness” of General Milley. On June 23,2021, he was called to task in Hearings held in the House Armed Services Committee for including “critical race theory” in its West Point curriculum. and for making statements that he wanted “to understand white rage”, specifically calling the protests at the Capitol on January 6, 2021 as a “white supremacy” attempt to overthrow the Federal Government. The skewing of fact has been an issue with mainstream media and Left leaning politicians, but I’ve never seen it coming from a General Officer of the United States Army.
Much to my dismay, the top of the Chain of Command has been and is continuing its detrimental social engineering projects on our military as reported by the NY post.
“The Defense Department is now reportedly considering hiring a private company to monitor the free speech of military personnel on social media, using key words or algorithms that by their very nature reflect the perspective of those who select the words and write the algorithms. The relentless drive to enforce conformity within the military with a preferred leftist narrative is troubling, especially as it reinforces Marxist tendencies.”
We have read about examples of this with the suspension of Space Force Commander Matthew Lohmeier for espousing the dangers of “critical race theory” being taught to new recruits of all the Branches of Service. We’ve also read about Marine Corps Lieutenant. Colonel Stuart Scheller, being arrested and detained for posting an online video on August 26, 2021 demanding accountability from senior leaders after they botched an attack plan in Afghanistan that killed thirteen U.S. service members in Kabul after our disastrous exit from there. These insane policies, being fed to the ranks repeatedly has deprived our Military of morale and competent leadership. The criminalization of the actions of these two men alone is reprehensible, but the overall “wokeness” culture in the top tiers of military leadership has disastrous consequences on our overall military preparedness.
Case in point: Our withdrawal from Afghanistan in August of this year was one of the sloppiest exits I have seen. The planning from the White House, down to the General Officers in the Joint Chiefs of Staff led to a complete breakdown of the mission and left our men and women on the ground holding the bag as reported by Military.com
“U.S. officials also pushed their own political aims without taking into account what was achievable, a report released Tuesday by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, concluded in its final ‘lessons learned.’ By relying on quick-fix solutions, U.S. programs ultimately worsened the issues that they were meant to address.”
As reported by the New York Post on November 13, 2021, despite the White House’s repeated denial that any American has been left behind in Afghanistan, the State Department believes as many as 14,000 United States legal permanent residents remain stranded there. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Like all branches of service, the United States Marine Corps has several legendary figures that stand out and continue to inspire. My personal favorite was the Marine’s Marine, Lieutenant General Lewis “Chesty” Puller. In my opinion, he was one of the best General Officers the Marine Corps has ever produced. He pulled no punches and had the fighting spirit of a lion. He didn’t play politics, and believed in the strength of a strong military. My favorite quotes that embodies his philosophy of military preparedness was “Hit hard, hit fast, hit often.” and “We win battles!”
The United States deserves to have common sense, strong, capable and patriotic military leaders, who embody the American Spirit, to protect our Citizens, and to create strategy that will win battles. What we have now in our General ranks is anything but the qualities we deserve. May God Bless and Protect our Troops.
