By John Lucas, USMA ’69
President Joe Biden and his administration are continuing to purge and politicize the American military. Consistent with the totalitarian left’s effort to control curricula down to the grade-school level, their latest effort targets the education of America’s future military leaders at the service academies: The U. S. Military Academy at West Point, the Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
This is not happening by accident. And there is no greater danger to the country than this effort to politicize the military by ensuring that all officers hew to the political party line of this administration.
Each of the service academies is overseen by a bipartisan “Board of Visitors,” comprised of accomplished members of Congress, retired military personnel, and distinguished civilians. By federal statute, these Boards of Visitors are charged with a duty to “inquire into the morale and discipline, the curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs, academic methods, and other matters relating to the Academy.” The members visit the academies regularly and by law are required to submit an annual “written report to the President of its action, and of its views and recommendations pertaining to the Academy.”
On January 30, less than two weeks after President Biden’s inauguration, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin announced he was suspending the Boards of Visitors for West Point, the Air Force Academy, and the Naval Academy . . .
. . . The next shoe dropped on Sept. 8, when the White House purported to fire the service academies board members appointed by President Trump. Notwithstanding Biden’s self-professed policy of unity and “bringing the nation together,” this unprecedented action was calculated to be as insulting as possible.
Biden’s director of the Office of White House Personnel, Catherine Russell, sent letters to all the president-appointed members requesting their resignations that same day with a caveat that they would be terminated if they did not resign voluntarily by 6:00 p.m. She did not include any recognition of their past service, just a perfunctory “thank you” for their demanded resignation. Nor did she give any reason for the firings, or mention that each member had been appointed for a three-year term. . . .
. . . The American people need to fully understand how dangerous a precedent this administration is setting for the country. It is not just part of the continuing Biden purge of anything Trump touched, although it is that.
It is part of the political left’s relentless drive to force political conformity in thought, word, and deed on all segments of society, including the military. . . . (read more)
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