Another shrill article from the DC elitist executive editor of Defense One, who apparently lives in a different rarified reality/dimension there in the Beltway:
If you thought the right-wingers hated Gen. Mark Milley and his support for “wokeism” policies, wait until they get a load of U.S. Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown, who is now President Joe Biden’s pick to be the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Brown is a full-throated leader of diversity, equity, and inclusion, or DEI, programs in the military. And he’s no shrinking violet. Early in the summer of 2020, as nationwide protests and riots boiled over George Floyd’s murder, Brown posted a video message that was unusually personal for a member of the Joint Chiefs, explaining how he felt and how the military’s path to diversity has been and will continue to be a long one.
After all, the general’s experience with racism and diversity is personal, and he is a rare sight: a Black military officer who made it to the very top ranks of a service branch.
“In 2020, Brown launched investigations into potential biases in the service’s promotion process and made changes to make it more equitable. The following year, he opened the Air Force’s first Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office,” reports Defense One’s Audrey Decker.
Brown, like all of the service chiefs, has been asked and answered about DEI policies extensively. He supports them and denies that they are a cause of recruiting struggles or retention of current troops.
“What I will tell you is when people join our military, they want to look around and see somebody who looks like them. They want to be part of a team [and] feel like they’re included,” Brown said in March, during Defense One’s State of Defense interview series with the Joint Chiefs. “They don’t want to join something that they feel like you’re put as an outcast.”
I’ve noted how in years past, Republicans who opposed equality and human rights-promoting policies have avoided targeting military officers.
Instead, they would claim that Democratic administrations were foisting unwanted progressive policies on the military—even when those policies are supported by a majority of Americans [STARRS Note: ??????] —like:
- allowing minorities to move from the back of the echelons to the front lines;
- permitting LGBTQ+ Americans to serve quietly during the Clinton-era “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, and then to serve openly after its removal;
- opening combat jobs to women;
- supporting gender-affirming medical care;
- finding ways for troops to escape state-enacted abortion bans; and so on.
. . . (read more on Defense One)
Rep. Barry Moore to Newsmax: Joint Chiefs Nominee Must Take New Direction (NewsMax, 25 MAY 23)
Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., told Newsmax on Thursday he is hoping Air Force Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown, President Joe Biden’s nominee to replace Army Gen. Mark Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will take the military in a better direction than under Milley’s leadership.
“We’ve been struggling under the previous command leadership and just hitting our recruitment goals,” Moore, a member of the House Judiciary and Agriculture committees, told “American Agenda.”
“It’s important that we have leadership that shows that they really are for the soldiers, are supporting soldiers’ rights.”
“And we’ve got to quit going woke because that breaks everything it touches, and the military needs to focus on fighting and defending, doing the job that they’re called to do.” . . .
. . . . “I think [Milley] made the [military] too political,” Moore said. “We need people in positions based on job performance and not pronouns, and I hope that this general will take leadership, like the president himself said, to be courageous to do the tough thing.
“That doesn’t always mean going along with the administration. It means speaking of what you believe is right for your men. It makes sure that you have a force that’s ready to fight and do the job.”
Moore said one of the first things Brown should do is advocate for reimbursing military members who were forced out for not following the COVID-19 vaccine mandate and reimbursing their pay.
“Mistakes were made in the last few months and maybe even years under this administration [that] have certainly hurt our ability to recruit young people,” Moore said. . . . (read more/see video on NewsMax)
‘Swamp Thang’: Biden reveals how his ‘Top Gun’ pilot Joint Chiefs Chair pick ejected from his F-16 over the Everglades to earn his call sign – and praises his barbecue cooking (Daily Mail, 25 MAY 23)
President Joe Biden lauded his pick to serve as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles C. Brown, Jr. as a ‘warrior descended from a proud line of warriors’ – telling of how he bailed out of his fighter jet and once made it as an answer on ‘Jeopardy!’ . . . .
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