Two disastrous actions taken by Barack Hussein Obama during his presidency have delivered extensive damage to the US military, just as planned. The first was the systematic purging of nearly 200 senior officers over five years and their subsequent replacement by Democrat loyalists, as reported here. His second ignominious action taken was the 2011 Executive Order 13583 directing “government-wide diversity and inclusion training,” which, by 2020, included the implementation of Marxist critical race theory training in all federal agencies including the US military services.
The results from these actions are now crystal clear. Retired Obama-era flag and general officers (FOGO), in direct violation of Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, have publicly criticized President Trump and even called him a threat to US national security, as noted here and here. Several may even be preparing for a military coup, as reported in this shocking video from Col Richard H. Black, JAG Corps, USA (retd), a former head of the Army’s Criminal Law Division:
Other commentators have also noted the deleterious impact of Obama-era policies on the upper ranks of the US military, with one example excerpted here:
It began to be clear last October that the Obama administration (with some help from Bill Clinton’s presidency) had seeded the Pentagon with leftist generals whose allegiance was to the Deep State, to cultural leftism, and to the infamous and profitable “military industrial complex” that Eisenhower warned about in 1961. In only five years, Obama had conducted a major Pentagon purge, firing almost 200 senior officers who held the old-fashioned belief that the military exists to protect America and should not be a social justice institution with limited firepower.
The upper-level officers who remained were hardcore Democrats. While still in the military, Admiral McRaven gave bin Laden a respectful, private burial. Once out of the military, he wrote an editorial for the New York Times, strongly suggesting a military coup against Trump. Barry McCaffrey, a Clinton White House officer, likened Trump to Mussolini because he canceled the White House’s newspaper subscriptions. And Obama’s Joint Chiefs Vice Chair, James Winnefeld, was deeply offended on behalf of ISIS terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi because Trump did the psychologically smart thing of telling al-Baghdadi’s followers that he died like a coward.
While these public statements by retired Obama FOGOs are unprecedented and reflect Obama’s successful politicization of the upper ranks of the military, perhaps even more disturbing are the effects of EO 13583. Media targeted at military service personnel are replete with stories focused on critical race theory, racial injustice, and other issues aligned with that Executive Order. Here are several recent articles:
- Lawmakers pressed the Pentagon on fixing “longstanding problems of racial disparities in the military justice system,” as reported at Military(dot)com.
- The Air Force Education and Training Command has implemented Marxist micro-aggression (sic) sensitivity training, as reported at Military(dot)com.
- The US Army Research Laboratory funded a 3-year $1.5M grant to two Northeastern University professors to develop a “fully automated microaggression detector.”
- “Wokeness” training has also been implemented at US Military Academy at West Point, as reported here.
- The Commandant of the US Marine Corps vows to push for “1-year maternity leave for Marines,” as reported here.
- The Commandant also said that the Marines can’t complete their missions without “diversity, women and minorities,” as reported here.
Are you getting the picture? These actions promote divisiveness and destroy good order and discipline in the ranks. And they push young servicemen and women into the waiting arms of Black Lives Matter and the “cancel culture.”
I have saved perhaps the most egregious example in order to expose the nonsense ongoing at my alma mater, the US Naval Academy. It has been widely reported that President Trump directed the Office of Management and Budget to end critical race theory training throughout the federal government via an OMB memorandum signed 4 September. Given the publicity and numerous media reports thereafter, virtually anyone in a senior management position in the federal government – including the military services – would have understood the purpose and intent of the President and that memorandum. Yet, VADM Sean Buck, the Superintendent of the Naval Academy, sent this internal email to staff on 9 September [emphasis added]:
Team,
Over the last several months, as a nation, we have faced extraordinary challenges as we’ve navigated the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the pandemic’s toll has laid bare existing inequalities in our nation including disparities in access to economic opportunity, healthcare, and justice among our minority communities in the United States. Over the past several months, I have listened to voices from around our country, our Alumni community, and our Naval Academy family here on the Yard. And now, I’d like to share my reflections from the last several months and thoughts as to how we, as a community and an institution, can come out of this stronger than before. In short, diversity, equity, and inclusion are more vital than ever to our mission here at the Naval Academy of developing leaders to serve our Nation.
At the Naval Academy, our primary mission is to develop leaders of character who are capable of leading Sailors and Marines in the Fleet. Since 1845, we have been able to accomplish this mission year after year, and that dedication to our core purpose is what has made our institution the premier accession source for Navy and Marine Corps Officers. Time and time again, we have graduated men and women who have gone on to serve their country with distinction whether on the battlefield, in the boardroom, or in their communities.
Like our graduates who have flown night missions over the Persian Gulf, sailed a warship through the South China Sea, or led a platoon of Marines in the streets of Baghdad, our institution must remain ever vigilant, always adapting to the environmental circumstances to ensure that we are performing our mission to the best of our ability. As leadership development is our primary mission, I believe that it is our responsibility to graduate Ensigns and 2nd Lieutenants who are capable of leading with courage, character, and compassion. In our profession of arms, empathy is not just a nice to have; it is a job requirement. If you cannot understand the perspective of those you lead, you will have a hard time finding success in this line of work.
As we attempt to imbue our midshipmen with these qualities, I believe that our diversity as an institution is essential to the continued success of our Academy’s mission. Creating a Brigade of Midshipmen from all different walks of life is the best way to develop our young men and women to lead the diverse Sailors and Marines of our Fleet. Diversity and inclusivity are also essential to fulfilling our mission of cultivating an officer corps of agile and creative thinkers who are equipped to confront our myriad and complex national security challenges of today and tomorrow. At the Naval Academy, diversity and inclusion are imperative to our institution’s success.
As I reflect on the past couple of months since the tragic death of George Floyd, I have been encouraged by the Academy’s students, faculty, staff, and alumni who understand the importance of diversity to our mission. At the same time, I am not naive in thinking that bigotry and racism do not exist, to some extent, within our Naval Academy family.
For those of you who think I’m wrong, and believe the Naval Academy is free of racial injustice, I encourage you to take the time to watch a video put together by our Midshipman Diversity Team. In this video, members of our Brigade of Midshipmen courageously shared their own personal stories of encountering racism, discrimination, and bias so that we may listen and learn from them. I urge each and everyone of us to use this video as a starting point for self-reflection and hard conversations. I also challenge every member of our Naval Academy family to live up to the worthy ideals articulated by our midshipmen in this video and work toward a more equitable and inclusive future for all members of our Brigade, our Navy, and our nation.
I believe — as I hope you do — that fostering an environment of dignity and respect here at the Naval Academy is essential to our mission of developing future leaders of character for the Navy and Marine Corps. As the Superintendent, it is my responsibility to ensure that our community is safe, welcoming, and inclusive for all, but I cannot do this alone. It must be a team effort. Thankfully, we have a cohort of extraordinary leaders within our ranks here on the Yard who have stepped up to the challenge to guide us all towards a better future.
Over the past few weeks our midshipmen, faculty, staff, and coaches have taken the following steps to start the process of improving our culture and encouraging important dialogue within our Naval Academy family:
- Student leaders from the Midshipman Black Studies Club, National Society of Black Engineers, Midshipman Caribbean Heritage Club, and Naval Academy Gospel Choir have established a Midshipman Diversity Team. This team, under the guidance of our Chief Diversity Officer, CAPT Timika Lindsay, and with the support of our other affinity clubs, is developing a midshipman-led, comprehensive plan to identify midshipman-level shortfalls within our Naval Academy family with the goal of proposing a plan to resolve these issues of privilege, bias, and racial injustice.
- Members of our Naval Academy football team stood up the Academy’s first Racial Equity Council which addresses issues of racial equity within our Naval Academy and local community to include a recent round table discussion with local law enforcement agencies.
- The Class of 2024 will be the first group of midshipmen with a requirement to engage each other in these hard conversations as a part of their development as empathetic leaders of character.
- Our Faculty Senate recently passed a resolution with overwhelming support to investigate and address any practices at the Naval Academy that perpetuate systemic racism.
- With the help of the Naval Academy Minority Association (NAMA), our Alumni Association & Foundation has been hosting virtual round tables with graduates across the country to encourage engagement on issues of racial injustice. I have participated in some of these discussions, and can attest to the eye-opening and self-reflective conversations that have resulted from these conversations.
- Training sessions about the importance of diversity to our institution are scheduled for all classes of midshipmen throughout the fall semester; all faculty and staff will also be trained on diversity, equity and inclusion. And I’m committed to continue working with all USNA stakeholders to improve in this area.
These are just a few examples of the small steps taken in recent weeks, the first of many that we as a team will continue to take. While these steps alone cannot eliminate racial injustice at the Naval Academy, I assure you that they mark an important new beginning as we look to acknowledge prejudice within our own institution and eradicate it from our service for good.
Respectfully,
VADM Buck
Link to Midshipman Diversity Team video:
Regardless of the Superintendent’s email memo being “internal”, it was promulgated five days AFTER the President’s written, lawful directive and thus evinces direct and deliberate disobedience and insubordination. There is an open question as to whether the Chief of Naval Operations knew about the email before it was sent, as the Superintendent reports directly to the CNO.
I have reread the Superintendent’s email multiple times, and each time it reads even worse. Here are a few issues that stick in my craw.
- Only two proper names are mentioned in the email: (1) George Floyd, the career violent criminal who died of a self-administered drug overdose after being arrested for passing counterfeit money, and (2) very likely the future “historic, first black woman Superintendent of USNA”, CAPT Tamika Lindsay, USNA Diversity Officer. Virtue-signaling on both fronts.
- Midshipmen are to be “trained” in critical race theory. Trained in cultural Marxism!
- The most important thing, says Buck, is to have a Brigade that reflects diversity and inclusiveness (code for all of the anointed “oppressed peoples of color and alternative gender identity”), but there is no mention of any desire for the most competent and talented potential warfighters. Therefore, one objective is to choose midshipmen with the aim of achieving Brigade-wide conformity of thought, with no dissension permitted!
- Systemic racism is supposedly a true threat, not just nationally but also at USNA – or so they will drill into the heads of the midshipmen.
- It disgusts me that midshipmen will be trained to effectively make common cause with the Marxist Black Lives Matter movement and their associated cancel culture. BLM is not a slogan; it’s an anti-American, looting, burning, gang of thuggish communist berserkers. Those who think they are just supporting the slogan are also supporting the cop-killing thugs. I spent my entire adult life fighting communism and defending the country from ALL enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC, and to see my alma mater willingly embrace it and them makes me furious!
- The continued blathering about “diversity” by those who should know better is nothing but virtue-signaling. Diversity just for the sake of diversity instead of merit is nonsensical. Every single horrific battle of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam was won without paying obeisance to diversity for the sake of diversity. Midway, D-Day, Iwo Jima, Chosin Reservoir, Hamburger Hill, etc. – all were won on the basis of patriotic Americans doing their best – together!
- And all of it is “imperative,” i.e., to be commanded. If it is to be commanded, then real diversity of thought and values will logically NOT be tolerated! Lies beget lies.
There have been multiple incidents of senior DOD officials, including military officers, recklessly, publicly disagreeing with, affronting, rebuking, disavowing, and disobeying the Commander in Chief (CIC). One can imagine how much worse it must be behind the scenes, and how harmful this has been to the morale and welfare of the Services, not to mention dangerous to our liberties.
The incidents seem to have escalated from borderline, publicly expressed disagreements to outright insubordination in the forms of obstruction, and now, in the case of the USNA Superintendent, abject disobedience. This threat will not organically and voluntarily subside if the duly elected POTUS and CIC refrains from asserting his Constitutional and statutory authority. This unprofessional, unmilitary and now unlawful behavior on the part of these arrogant, mutinous officers will only get worse.
If, as noted in the Youtube video cited above, a military coup is brewing, then that is all the more reason to put an immediate and decisive end to the egregious disregard these officers and officials have for their sworn oaths. If no military coup per se is in fact percolating, then there is no downside to exercising his lawful authority as duly elected POTUS and CIC and stopping the mutinous trend with strategic firings.
Doubtless, these actions will have to wait until his second term, as it is not outside the realm of possibility that the recent public statements of retired FOGOs and now this act by a serving Navy vice admiral are intended to bait the President into taking actions that, while entirely justifiable, would provide political optics that would be spun to his detriment by the Democrat-media complex and the Biden campaign.
In any event, the rot resulting from Obama’s executive order and the firings of senior military officers has wrought extensive damage to military good order, discipline, readiness, and training – and ultimately to the nation’s national defense capabilities. The political corruption in the military needs to be reversed and the hyper-partisans purged from the ranks. Start at the top, Mr. President!
The end.
