Senator Suggests US Military Should Focus on Warfighting Instead of ‘Critical Race Theory’
© AP Photo / Caroline Brehman
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The Biden administration has launched a series of ambitious reforms in the US military which officials hope will help to tackle racism, sexism, sexual assault and other problems afflicting the armed forces. Critics say the effort only serves to weaken the military, and that some of the policies are nothing more than pseudo-academic claptrap.
The US military’s excessive focus on things like ‘white rage’ and ‘critical race theory’ is responsible for their humiliating defeat to Britain’s Royal Marines in recent wargames in California, Missouri senator Josh Hawley has alleged.
Speaking to Fox News, Hawley was asked ‘what China must be thinking’ about the US defeat in the drills, which took place 25-30 October in the Mojave Desert.
“They’re probably wondering why it is that people like [Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark] Milley and Secretary [of Defence Lloyd] Austin spend so much time recommending books on ‘white rage’, on ‘critical race theory’ and are not more focused on warfighting,” the senator said.
“We’ve got the best soldiers, airmen, marines in the entire world. Our soldiers are amazing warfighters, let ‘em fight, train ‘em to do what they do best, and stop using the military as a giant social experiment, which is what the left seems to want,” Hawley, a prominent GOP lawmaker and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, added.
Hawley recalled his altercations with Milley on China’s supposed threat to Taiwan in the general’s recent congressional testimony, and suggested that “this ought to be the priority, rather than assigning our troops to read stuff on critical race theory and white rage and white supremacy and all of these other left-wing pursuits.”
Late last month, British commandos obliterated almost the entire unit of elite US Marines during ‘Exercise Green Dagger’ drills.
UK media reported that the Marines’ triumph in the five-day multi-domain wargames was attributable to their employment of a new battle doctrine. During the simulation, US forces were reportedly losing so heavily at one point that they asked for the drill to be “reset”, with British Marines rendering inoperable or destroying almost every US asset, and capturing over 65 percent of the training area, after starting off with less than 20 percent through the effective use of long-range artillery and commando raids.
3 November 2021, 13:14 GMT
The Marine Corps refused to classify their loss as a defeat, suggesting that “‘winners’ are never determined,” and that the exercise did “not provide an opportunity to ‘surrender’, ‘keep score’, or ‘reset’.”
Victorious! 🏆@RoyalMarines triumph in part of multinational team on Exercise Green Dagger 21. The 5-day Multi-domain war-fighting exercise concluded with an epic close quarters finale in Mojave Desert.
— 40 Commando Royal Marines (@40commando) October 30, 2021
🇬🇧🇨🇦🇳🇱🇦🇪🇺🇸#StrongerTogether @USMC pic.twitter.com/MW0xzw0TBt
The Biden administration and senior generals led by Milley have taken heavy flak from conservatives in recent months over a range of policies ostensibly aimed at tackling racism in the military and becoming more inclusive. In testimony to lawmakers, Milley defended instruction on critical race theory – a liberal ideology which contests that America was founded on racism and that it is a systemic issue which continues to cause cultural, legal and class disparities, and other problems. Critics of the theory have dismissed the idea that ‘whiteness’ in itself is a privilege in today’s America, and expressed concerns that taking critical race theory to its logical conclusions could result in reverse discrimination, political correctness gone mad, and anti-white hate.
Milley’s efforts “to understand white rage,” the military’s promotional materials and reading lists designed to appeal to minorities and members of the LGBTQ community, and the rollout of new equipment such as “maternity flight suits” for pregnant female pilots have been dismissed as a “mockery” of the armed forces by conservative politicians and pundits, and been turned into memes online.
The ideological battle for the soul of the US military has become a major issue in the ongoing culture war between conservatives and liberals, with the former alleging that changes to the military to make it more liberal, diverse and ‘tolerant’ are signs of an insidious "leftist" or “Marxist” plot, while self-described American leftists accusing the Pentagon and the military-industrial complex of cynically using gay pride, minority and women’s rights to “shield a rapacious oligarchy,” justify absurd defence budgets and engage in military aggression abroad.
27 October 2021, 12:42 GMT
