I am a Vietnam veteran, a proud former member of the United States Armed Forces, and patriotic to the core of my being.   I have always defended our military and will continue to defend the men and women serving in the rank and file of the various branches of service.  However, I have contended for a long time that beginning with William Jefferson Clinton and the disdain Queen Hillary had for the military, our military brass has become unreliable.

George W. Bush attempted to reconstruct the military and make it viable and a dominant force in the world, as needed.  Barack Hussein Obama came in and, for 8 years, shredded and deconstructed our military, purging top and mid-level brass to become a more liberal and woke force.  Donald John Trump stepped in, and over his 4 years in office, he took great pride and strides in remaking our military.  Now, the Obama and Clinton policies on steroids have been put into motion by the Biden administration.

Sadly, each time a Republican or conservative President attempts to retool our military and bring it up to par, a Democrat comes behind him and dismantles all the good done.  We never fully recoup all the damage done by the Leftists, and in 2021, the new Defense Secretary, Lloyd Austin, proved to be a man on a mission to fulfill the desires of the Leftists.  His efforts clearly have sought to make our military an extension of their totalitarian desires.   Hopefully, President Trump will be successful in restoring our military; otherwise, we are headed for a disaster of epic proportions.

Secretary Austin and the Biden team exhibited no desire for our military to be or remain the most lethal force in the world, able to deploy at a moment’s notice in defense of America.  I have been deeply concerned about the attitude of some Flag Officers and Secretary Austin’s announced agenda. 

The claim of ‘extremism’ in the military and the charge of ‘white supremacy’ is troubling.   The steps taken to enact a military-wide pause are dangerous.   Secretary Austin ordered the military to ‘stand down’ as he and the top-level brass investigated and dealt with the threat posed by white supremacy and similar extremism.  Mr. Secretary, are only whites the issue, or is there potential extremism in others, too? 

The ‘stand-down’ was troubling.  Usually, a ‘stand-down’ is a pause in all but absolutely essential operations for 24 hours or so to deal with a particularly critical concern of immediate importance.  It is usually a safety issue, but his orders also included other things.  But, to ‘stand down’ because you deem members of the military who supported Donald Trump dangerous, extremists, and in need of being purged is beyond the pale.   It screams of a desire to create a “Woke” military that is completely committed to the ideology of liberalism and the socialist progressive agenda.

The assertion of extremism was and is unsubstantiated and a slap in the face of every member of our armed forces and all who have served.  We served under oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.   In that respect, we took an oath that, to the death, we would protect the republic from all foreign and domestic enemies.   That would mean that we might hold political views, but in performing our duties, we were apolitical and committed to our mission.  The charge was that a significant number needed to be purged because they did not think or believe like the ‘Woke’ crowd, and Biden’s Secretary of Defense was insulting.

If you examine history, something the Left seems averse to doing, you quickly realize that in September 1934, Adolf Hitler was scheduled to inspect a Jaeger regiment commanded by Colonel Erwin Rommel.  The Nazi security insisted that the politically reliable SS troops be positioned between Hitler and Rommel’s regiment.  To his credit, Rommel said that if that happened, his troops would not be there.  That should have been the response of our American military leaders when Biden and company wanted to restructure our military with party loyalists for his security rather than their designed purpose of defending America.

The desire to purge all Trump supporters from the military was step one toward a totalitarian takeover.   When I consider the ‘stand-down.’   I insist that it was based on fallacious accusations and non-existent issues.  There was no investigation into the potential infiltration of our military by ANTIFA, BLM, and proponents of the Critical Race Theory, which is also insulting.  Those have some documentation, and having domestic terrorists serving in the U.S. military is cause for concern. 

Have we been watching a Stalinist, Hitleresque purge of the military?  I am concerned as I examine the documentation of the rapid and aggressive promotions of senior military brass who ascribed to a history devoid of facts and those determined to undermine the ethics and morale of our armed forces.   The placement of true insurrectionists in the upper levels of our military should cause us to take a closer look.

Having served in Vietnam in 1967 and returning to the States, landing in San Francisco in December of that year, I know what it is like to be unwelcome and treated as the enemy for serving my country.   I did not experience that when I returned home to Texas, but I witnessed it first-hand in California, especially among students at Berkeley University.   The chants, slogans, signs, and throwing of feces and other projectiles at wounded returning patriots were disconcerting and infuriating. 

Are we seeing an inside-out attempt to make our military a Gestapo-type arm of the Democratic Party and the followers of toxic liberalism?  When former military and CIA officers are insisting that anyone who supports Trump is an insurgent and must be dealt with using counterinsurgency tactics and brute force, I am concerned.  I do not support insurrection from anyone, regardless of their political ideology.  Yet, to treat those in Washington in January as insurgents and disregard the activities and stated objectives of the rioters, looters, and destroyers by ANTIFA, BLM, and other Left-Wing Activists as ‘mostly peaceful protests’ is revealing.

In today’s climate of Political Correctness, I can understand why many would no longer be willing to serve in law enforcement or the military.  If you defend the Constitution as it is written and commit yourself to defending the Constitution and the Rule of Law without prejudice, you are deemed an extremist; who needs that?  However, I plead for all who can and will serve to consider doing so.  We need, no we must have, those who will stand for Right, Life, Liberty, and Freedom to stand.

God bless you, and God bless America!