During a fiery exchange at Tuesday's House Armed Services Committee hearing on the defense budget, Florida Republican Matt Gaetz slammed Biden Defense Secretary (SecDef) Lloyd Austin for being obsessed with far-left indoctrination of our troops.
He also accused Team Biden of “trying to destroy our military with wokeism.”
While talking over Austin, Gaetz argued that the Pentagon has gotten a lot of things wrong recently, telling Austin:
You have been blowing a lot of calls lately on matters of strategy, Mr. Secretary. You told us that Russia couldn't lose. You told us that the Taliban couldn't immediately win. So, I guess I'm wondering what in the $773 billion that you are requesting today is going to help you make assessments that are accurate in the face of so many blown calls?
American defense officials have admitted that there could have been intelligence failures that led the U.S. to underestimate Ukraine against Russia and overestimate the Afghan military.
Gaetz then contrasted our enemies increased military capabilities with our Pentagon's embarrassing obsession with neo-Marxist indoctrination, including a ridiculous far-left lecture at the National Defense University (NDU) about the need to end U.S. ‘arrogance' in the world and promoting socialism in the U.S. as a strategy to combat China.
The two then engaged in a debate on whether embracing socialism was a solution for America, though Austin was unaware of the NDU lecture.
Gaetz then went on to say:
…while everyone else in the world seems to be developing capabilities and being more strategic, we got time to embrace critical race theory at West Point, to embrace socialism at the National Defense University, to do mandatory pronoun training.
Gaetz also contended that, based on the Pentagon briefings to Congress, the U.S. military has fallen behind in the development of hypersonic weapons, adding that “it's not just the hypersonics.”
“It's all over the world,” he continued, citing increased Chinese military sorties near Taiwan and North Korean missile tests.
Austin responded to Gaetz saying the U.S. has the “most capable, most combat-credible force in the world,” adding “The fact that you are embarrassed by your country…[inaudible]… I'm sorry for that.”
As the two yelled past each other, Gaetz assured Austin he was not embarrassed by America, but by Austin's leadership:
No, I'm embarrassed by your leadership. I am not embarrassed for my country. I wish we were not losing to China…. That is so disgraceful that you would sit here and conflate your failures with the failures of the uniform service members. You guys said that Russia would overrun Ukraine in 36 days. You said that the Taliban would be kept at bay for months. You totally blew those calls, and maybe we would be better at them if the National Defense University actually worked a little more on strategy and a little less on wokeism.
Gaetz added that Team Obama “tried to destroy the military by starving it of resources,” while “It seems the Biden administration is trying to destroy our military by force-feeding it woke-ism.”
Austin maintained that he and the military are focused entirely on defending the country.
“So, any notion that they're woke or that our military is woke, I take issue with that. Because it's just not true,” Austin said, without providing any specific counters to Gaetz' examples. “It's a false narrative, and they deserve better than that,” he concluded.
Rather than having a shouting match, I would like a specific exposition of all the criticisms Gaetz leveled at Austin and a detailed explanation from the SecDef. That would be far more productive and beneficial for our country.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
It is about time someone (Rep. Gaetz) called out the Sec’y. of Defense for his cowering to the Left with “Wokeism” (CRT) and the debacle in Afghanistan – not to belabor the obvious blundering that lay open to the whole world for our adversaries to see. Also, is it too much to expect a more “military bearing” in our senior military officials? Or is “CRT” the new norm instead of “critical thinking” and physical fitness?
The author’s wish for a rational discussion between those of us who agree with Gaetz and the clowns in the current administration is fantasy. Our military leaders are complete liars and need to be called out as such. For Austin to claim the military has not become “woke” is transparently false. Look at all the effort they expended to search for “extremists” and even by stretching the definition, only found 100 possible indications of it. For Milley to search for the causes of what he calls “white rage” is absurd. For Gilday to put a fiction book by Kendi on the Navy reading list is bizarre. To allow folks to apply for religious exemptions to the vaccine mandate and then deny them all is pure farce. To decommission ships as we face a war at sea with China is stupid. Closing the fuel depot in Hawaii without an alternative is criminally irresponsible. This administration gets nothing right but is happy to act self-righteous when engaging in blatant lies. When all else fails, blame it on Trump and Putin.
From comments made on the spat between Geatz and Austin it’s quite transparent what the commenters’ political philosophy is. This line of reasoning in agreement with Geatz gives credence to Gratz. Which he is not so deserving of, given the debunked conspiracy theories he continues believing.
Geatz goes for the spotlight and grabs sound bites.
The comments also follow American liberty.news political world view in lock step.
Where is real liberty in America. One part of the country accuses others who hold an opposing view of supporting a so called cancel culture. In fact the accusers are at work canceling all they believe is objectionable in their view. Liberty goes both ways, as does the First Amendment with freedom of speech. The constitution does not call for cancellation of people for spreading lies and disinformation.
Comments on this site are protected by the First Amendment. However, the amendment does not protect one from others disapproving rejection with regard to points made.
Debates are healthy when all sides appreciate civility rules, understand direct accusations and negativity is unacceptable. Personal character assassination is out of bounds and mindless juvenile behavior.
Geatz and co/conspirators play at being rational responsible adults. Government is serious business and it impacts more than Geatz seems knowledgeable of concerned about.
He does not do debate, Debate engages persons with opposing views on an issue and pursue convincing cogent argumentation furthering objective proof.
Geatz is not known for principled questioning or studious debate. His style is accusatory in nature employing jabs and upper cuts more appropriate to street fighting.
Constructive participation with others on the committee is better use of interview time. Waste of time all participants spent in their meeting represents an unnecessary high cost.
An opportunity cost is the worth of other opportunities forgone when involved in one event exclusive of other choices at the same hour.
Geatz is clueless as to the costs he extorted from people with better choices for the same time.
That debate carried out by Rep. Mat Gaetz with Lloyd Austin was excellent these jerks are letting world powers over come us with the so called woke crap with the blessing from stupid Government & millitary so called leaders. Have these so called military become so soft that real training is falling behind?