Certain Republicans have promoted the idea that the effectiveness of the U.S. military has been undercut by “wokeness,” as they call it — and during an appearance on Fox News Sunday over the weekend, Defense Department spokesperson John Kirby succinctly shut down these arguments. The examples of these original Republican claims come from all over the place; Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), for instance, ranted that it was “clear President Biden and his Department of Defense have been more concerned with critical race theory and other woke policies than planning an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan,” which is nonsensical. Do these people expect observers to seriously believe that, with as much as the U.S. spends on defense, the country is faltering because of… “wokeness”? Can they even conclusively define it?
Asked while on Fox about some “criticism in the U.S. military that perhaps there’s too much of a leftward tilt or a wokeness in our military when we face really determined adversaries, committed adversaries, in China, Russia, Iran, who maybe don’t have those same kinds of pressures,” Kirby commented:
‘It depends on what [the exact criticisms] are, but I think a lot of it, quite frankly, is driving a stake through a strawman here, this argument of wokeness in the military. I was in the military for 30 years, and I can tell you, things like diversity and inclusion — that makes us a better military. Because it brings to the fore — in the operational decision-making that we conduct — better ideas, more unique perspectives, somebody else’s lived experiences, which might actually make us smarter on the battlefield. Those kinds of arguments I think are ridiculous, because we are a stronger military because of our diversity and because we represent all Americans just like we defend all Americans.’
Why are these Republicans so eager to turn against the U.S. military to begin with? They’re apparently fine with what essentially amounts to a betrayal of American ideals. Check out Kirby’s comments below:
"I think a lot of it is driving a stake through a strawman" — Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby on Fox News' concerns about "wokeness" in the military pic.twitter.com/fWc9tMM0b8
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 30, 2022
And yet, the mind-numbing Republican complaints go on. Recently, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said that the U.S. military has “become the woke military, not the lethal military.” Fox News host Tucker Carlson complained after inclusive uniform updates were unveiled that, in Biden’s America, “our military needs to become – as Joe Biden says – more feminine, whatever feminine means anymore, since men and women no longer exist.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) mockingly stated that “perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea.” What on earth are these people talking about? Again: are we seriously to believe that the military has somehow become… non-lethal? And, as presented by the Fox host who questioned Kirby, are the supposedly more intimidating alternatives that Republicans are going with really the militaries under authoritarian regimes? Baselessly running towards authoritarianism shouldn’t be the norm.
A leading Republican Senator said he does not expect a single Republican vote for Biden's Supreme Court nomination. No one has been picked. The only thing we know is it will be a black woman. Yet they've already decided she's not qualified. It's a pure demonstration of racism.
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) January 29, 2022
