Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin appeared before a U.S. Senate panel this week and was grilled by Sen. Tom Cotton, who informed Austin that his office has received “hundreds” of whistleblower complaints about the military’s new diversity and inclusion training.
Cotton, R-Ark., has aggressively fought back against such training. In March, he introduced legislation to ban critical race theory training from the military. He and Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, set up a website for whistleblower complaints to be directed to them earlier this month.Cotton said he’d seen reports of “plummeting morale, growing mistrust between races and sexes where none existed just six months ago and unexpected retirements and separations based on these trainings alone.”He said one Marine officer had said that military history training was replaced with training on police brutality, White privilege and systemic racism. Another claimed his unit was required to read “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo, which claims White people in the West have internalized White supremacy.
The exchange was so heated that Cotton asked Austin bluntly if the United States military is a “fundamentally racist organization.”
Asked if he believes the military is a “fundamentally racist organization,” Austin replied, “I won’t give you a yes-or-no answer on that, Senator, because it deserves more than a yes or no. The military, like any organization, will have its challenges, but I do not believe it is a fundamentally racist organization.”Cotton prevented Austin from continuing, saying that his “time is limited” before asking him “yes or no” whether service members should be treated differently based on the race or sex.Austin told Cotton, “Again, this question deserves more than a yes-or-no answer. I do not believe that, and that is why we have diversity, equity, and inclusion focus in the military.”
Austin’s response is astonishing. He went with the banal bureaucratic posturing, which underscores that the importance of whistleblowers continuing to blow whistles on the racist programming that is replacing more essential and unifying material for our service men and women.
It is apparent that many Americans are deeply concerned about Critical Race Theory seeping into military institutions and the service academies.
Congressman Michael Waltz, R-Fla., the only Green Beret ever elected to Congress, recently wrote the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point asking why critical race theory was being taught to future Army officers.”We aren’t demanding oversight of ‘diversity training,’ Waltz said in a tweet in response to a New York Times article. “We are demanding that divisive seminars like ‘How to Deal with Your White Rage’ to our future military leaders not continue.”This isn’t about ‘cultural wars.’ This is about keeping our military merit-based & mission focused.””The only color that matters on the battlefield is the flag on your uniform because that’s all our enemies are concerned with,” Waltz added “Our military should be open to all Americans and only worried about standards needed to win wars.”
Critical Race Theory has no place in our military. I am grateful Cotton is fighting this battle for our brave men and women, who should be judged on the content of their character, their accomplishments, and their love of country…not their skin color or political ideology.
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