Sen. Tom Cotton Grills Defense Secretary over Race-Based Programs in U.S. Military
Cotton also asks Lloyd Austin if military is a ‘fundamentally racist organization’. The response is astonishing.
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.”
Rep. Waltz sent a second letter to West Point Superintendent, Lt. Gen. Williams, to question why Dr. Carol Anderson was permitted to lecture on Critical Race Theory, to ask why it’s taught in the classroom, & make him aware of pending legislation to ban such teachings. pic.twitter.com/xmjFMRzuBz
— Congressman Waltz Press (@RepWaltzPress) June 10, 2021
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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Comments
If the military was on our side, then we wouldn’t have had a coup.
It’s why Trump couldn’t push back on antifa, I know he didn’t want to leave it to the commie Governors.
Look what happened at the church for God sakes! That’s all you need to know
The military is in the midst of an unprecedented political purge and they are keeping Congress in the dark with bureaucratic bullshit and misdirection. Any Senator or Rep who accepts the BS is an idiot. Go past the brass to rank and file and see what they are doing. The military is not a place for politics and social programs. If you don’t stop it now, it will fester and impact unit cohesion and readiness.
Off topic but…
DONT BELIEVE THIS WAS A SUICIDE FOR ONE FREAKING MINUTE!!!
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/reporter-who-broke-story-on-clinton-lynch-tarmac-meeting-found-dead
1st thing I thought when I read this on CFP was “There goes another Arkancide”.
Me too !!!
He wrote a book after the incident like in 2018.
The YouTube video Sen. Cotton’s portion starts at the 1:06:01 time in the hearing.
As for Dr. Robin DeAngelo’s book “White Fragility,” I have carefully read this book and believe it to be unsuited to any antiracist training. This book is based on humiliating and traumatizing whites because they are white.
It even includes a chapter entitled “White Women’s Tears” in which author DeAngelo complains that some white women cry due to being traumatized by this training. Basically, the training traumatizes these women to the point of tears and then, during the training, these women are further traumatized because they cry. This borders on sadism and has no place in the military.
This proves that the right response to that training is to remind yourself that it’s all nonsense and don’t take the “uncomfortable” stuff personally. In other words, cheat and don’t take the training in the spirit it was intended to be taken.
It’s justified for one’s own mental health.
The resistance and questioning the DoD is getting now is likely nothing compared to what they face after r win the HoR majority. Having control of the committee process, committee staff and the legislative agenda in the HoR will be a sea change.
IMO, opposition to CRT should be a key litmus test for supporting r candidates. It should also be part of a broader effort to nationalize the midterms. d/progressive candidates from purple districts/States much less red States and districts need to have this issue shoved so far up their ass it comes out the other side and is made front and center in the midterms.
Attacks on the budget, Senator Kane? How about attacks on the “fundamental change of the armed forces from a force designed to protect the country to a crowd of renegades who want to change the military into a group of babysitters for those who enter our country illegally and as guards for our legislative body who wants to hide out behind walls designed to protect them while leaving the citizenry as open prey to invaders?
Whatever answers the military gives are irrelevant. They still must obey the commander in chief – whoever is filling in for Biden in that role this week.
“I vas only folloving orders!” died at Nuremburg.
All our soldiers know that they are individually required to refuse unlawful and unconstitutional orders.
Um, yeah? So? This applies to this historical moment how? The Nazis expected to win, so the following orders thing was never more than cover. Those people loved killing Jews, gypisies, anyone at all for no reason at all, and they were trained to love killing the “enemies” of the state. Power corrupts, never forget that. If some loser is given the power of life and death over humans, do you really imagine they are thinking about their oath? Have you read a history book? Have you met people?
The commies expect to win here, too, and if you think that the newly “woke” military being crafted by the commies will think twice about following unlawful and unconstitutional orders, you are living in a fantasy-land. That’s not how it works. Ever. History tells us so. Repeatedly.
Fuzzy,
That’s too broad a brush. Will a larger percentage of the politicised General or Flag Officers do so? Yeah, and some of the rest of the Officer Corps.
Some sure but not all or even most 05 and below will do so. As for the NCOs or lower enlisted force they are by and large way more conservative a group than the electorate. Dramatically so.
One historical example of a very clear overt split in the military would be our own Civil War where a large number of experienced Officers refused to follow what they considered an unconstitutional course.
Another would be the English Civil War. The British Navy almost entirely and large portions of the small standing Army sided with Parliament against the Crown.
Would and do Soldiers commit actions in time of war which are borderline unconstitutional against external enemies? Yes. Warfare isn’t neat and orderly, it is complex and much more difficult than most understand.
Does that hold true for domestic situations against fellow citizens? Sometimes but not always. Certainly the record of western militaries in particular shows a good deal of reluctance and many times an outright refusal to perform acts which they see as illegal or unconstitutional.
Just another butt sucker who will do whatever his white liberal masters tell him to do.
I don’t know which is worse: another boring episode of Republican Failure Theater (TM), or the fact that they think we are stupid enough to keep falling for it.
Austin was confirmed on a vote of 93-2, with only Lee and Hawley voting against it. His virulently racist background was painfully evident before he was voted on. So why did not all Republicans line up against America’s version of Théoneste Bagosora?
The United States REALLY needs an opposition party that won’t rubber stamp whatever the Communists want.
Because the uniparty exists. That’s why. They didn’t fail. They aren’t failing this time. This is what was wanted.
Cotton can criticize and object. Buy can he actually do something about it? Hundreds of whistleblowers already and nothing has, or likely will, change.
America’s Bolsheviks are making their move to grab complete and total power and nothing but huge losses at the polls will stop them. Even that may not be enough.
And that assumes we can still have free and fair elections. All considered, I have my doubts about that.
Even then, if they think their power might slip away the Marxists will declare a national emergency claiming ‘white supremacists’ are trying to overthrow the government. They will use the full force of government to ‘fortify’ their hold on power regardless of apparent election results.
By himself? Follow the path he is on. In essence continue to gather testimony, whistleblower reports and other evidence. Build the case against this indoctrination.
Make that case in public. In articles, in person on TV, in follow speech. Force answers from DoD at every opportunity. Make visits to military installations leading like minded members of Congress. Hold townhall events restricted to service members from those members States and Districts. Push back clearly and forcefully.
Build public awareness and force the administration to defend CRT in the run up to the midterms. Perhaps join with a few other Senators to hold a true filibuster for the next DoD budget request.
Basically raise awareness and make it a central campaign issue in the midterm. Either the electorate will feel strongly enough to vote against politicians who endorse CRT or they won’t.