On Securing America TV, host Frank Gaffney interviews retired Army Major General Joe Arbuckle, who led an effort with Flag Officers 4 America to release a letter signed by over 120 retired US military generals and admirals who support Pete Hegseth to be the next Secretary of Defense.
General Arbuckle also talks about the problem of DEI in the military and service academies, and this ideology’s root in cultural Marxism to pit people against each other in order to divide.
Watch:
Over 120 Retired Flag Officers Endorse Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense
TRANSCRIPT
FRANK GAFFNEY
Welcome to Securing America with me, Frank Gaffney. The program that’s a kind of owner’s manual for protecting the country we love against all enemies, foreign and domestic, to the glory of God and His kingdom. There is a moment in time when patriots are in short supply and much needed, and this might be one such moment and I couldn’t be more proud to say we have a patriot in our midst, a man who has stepped up at a time of need, as he has often done in the past, both as a combat veteran and as a distinguished leader in the United States Army, now retired.
His name is Major General Joe Arbuckle. I’ve just learned that he is a, a distinguished member of, not one, not two, not three, but four different Army halls of fame. For his outstanding performance and officer candidate school as an engineer, as a ordnance corpsman, as an Materiel Command distinguished veteran. He is, in short, the kind of guy you want in your foxhole.
And we’re proud to be able to present him to you because he’s in Pete Hegseth foxhole at the moment. And I know that Pete is grateful for that fact, and he’s brought with him a lot of company. As it turns out, General Arbuckle has been the driving force behind a terrific organization. Flag Officers for America. And they’ve just generated a letter with, well over 100 signatures, supporting the nomination, by President Donald Trump of Pete Hegseth, another distinguished combat veteran to become the next secretary of defense.
General Arbuckle, as we’ll talk about, is also, the vice chairman of the board of another extraordinarily important veterans group. It’s called STARRS. It stands for Stand Together against Racism and Radicalism in the services. And, it too has been engaged on Pete s behalf, as have we with our little Save America’s military coalition, which General Arbuckle is, a member, I’m proud to say.
And with all that introduction, sir, there’s hardly any time left for you to speak, I’m afraid. But I wanted to set the the predicate for the importance of your comments and the work you’re about with, both of these great organizations. On behalf of what I’m very much convinced is going to be a great secretary of defense if confirmed by the Senate.
So welcome. It’s good to have you back. It’s been a long time, general.
MAJOR GENERAL JOE ARBUCKLE
It has been, Frank. And thank you very much for your kind words. Oh, my gosh. I’m, I’m, humbled by them.
GAFFNEY
You deserve them all. The truth of the matter, don’t take my word for it. FOUR Army halls of fame, four, ladies and gentlemen. General, let me cut to the chase, because, we will run out of time before I run out of accolades. Let me just say, the letter that you generated, concerning Pete, was, I think, both very timely and, probably very much needed.
Give us a little bit of background on Flag Officers for America. This is not your first rodeo. And why, when these general officers, both Navy, Marine, Air Force, Army, of course, Coast Guard men, I think believe, if I’m not mistaken, when they come together and speak with one voice, it’s something that everybody should pay attention to.
ARBUCKLE
Well, thanks, Frank. You know, I got involved with Flag Officer for America about four years ago, and it’s really not an organization, to be clear. It’s just a little team of about three of us, a couple of wonderful, patriotic ladies and who were really, really talented myself. And the first letter that we generated among the team was, to support Trump’s reelection, in 2020.
And what we do is we put these letters together and send them out to a group of, retired generals and admirals and ask them to sign if they’re so inclined. And, we capture their results and put them together and then, tabulate and do press releases. And this is, I think six letters since I’ve been involved with it, this most recent sporting update for SECDEF, prior to that, notably, we put one out after the Afghanistan we call it a debacle.
That was, I think, the first time the word was used asking for the resignations of Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, because the role they played in that. So that’s the kind of thing we’ve been doing most of has been targeted toward supporting Trump and also what’s happening in our nation, because we’re extremely concerned about losing our constitutional republic with this movement.
We’ve seen over the years toward the left and into, socialism and cultural Marxism. So that’s what Flag Officers is all about. We now have 125 retired generals and admirals that assigned that letter supporting Pete.
GAFFNEY
Wonderful. And let me just say, you know, the old EF Hutton’s commercial comes to mind when E.F. Hutton talks, people listen when you talk, when your cadre of general officers, flight officers talk, I think people, pay attention as well, and rightly so. And in some of those earlier letters, let me just be clear. I believe I’m correct in saying this is this is not a partisan organization.
You’re simply reflecting the best professional military judgment of these distinguished officers about whatever the issue of the day is. Is that right?
ARBUCKLE
That’s exactly right. We’ve addressed a lot of different issues in that regard as it going back to my earlier comment, all has to do with our oath to the Constitution to support and defend against all enemies, foreign, domestic. I mean, that cuts across all party lines. We all take the same oath and that never goes away. And that’s really at the heart of these letters.
GAFFNEY
And I couldn’t agree more. And why? Especially with your, I think, extraordinary crafting of these letters as a general rule. If I can use that expression, they are both powerful and insightful about whatever topic it is that you’re addressing. Which brings me to Pete Hegseth. This is a man who, I suspect, you know, I’ve known him for a long time.
I’ve respected him and, admired his work. It, the various veterans organizations he’s been associated with as well as at Fox News, his books as, his essays and articles. Tell us why you believe this is a warranted, you know, sort of recommendation about his candidacy.
ARBUCKLE
Sure. Frank. I’ve never met Pete. Never really communicated with him directly, but I certainly have followed him, just like you, and read in detail his book War on Warriors and, I believe. And it’s in the letter. He’s exactly the right guy for this time in our country’s history to, put our Defense Department back on the proper track.
You know, it’s interesting about Pete is that he had, as you know, an Ivy League education. He could have gone out and made a lot of money in the private sector, but he chose not to do that. Instead, he entered into the Army, the National Guard. And as you know, he served, combat tours in both, Iraq and Afghanistan, and was distinguished in his service.
So he has that grassroots level experience. It’s so important to take, you know, the Defense Department and be the secretary of defense. On top of that, he had studied and written about DEI and the disastrous effects that’s having our military.
GAFFNEY
And then again, that’s diversity, equity, inclusion, which is a fancy way of obscuring what’s basically cultural Marxism, isn’t it?
ARBUCKLE
It is. And, I’ll take that a step further before we continue with Pete. A lot of people don’t understand what you just said, but it’s reality. The is a spin off of Critical Race Theory, which is a spin off of Critical Theory. And it goes right back to Marxism, where the ideology says we’re going to divide people into groups and pit them against each other.
And it today is being used based on race primarily, but it can be any kind of, of an indicator can be gender, it can be sexual orientation, anything to to split people apart. And that’s the Cultural Marxism basis of DEI.
GAFFNEY
And just to make the I guess, obvious points there, but it’s not just about splitting them apart. It’s the classic divide and conquer strategies. And when it’s applied to the United States military, it can have profoundly, dangerous consequences. We have to take a break, sir. We’ll be right back with more with Major General Joe. We’re back.
And I couldn’t be more pleased to have both a friend and a very, very distinguished, well, mentor as well as, personal hero. His name is Major General Joe Arbuckle, United States Army, retired. He has served with great distinction. I won’t get into all of his, halls of fame again, but, suffice it to say, he is, a soldier soldier.
And we’re proud to have him here on this program. Always. Especially at a time such as this. General, you have, formed up with your Flag Officers for America, and I believe people can find that, FlagOfficers4America.org. Is that right?
ARBUCKLE
Dot com. Yes. Both. (FlagOfficers4America.com)
GAFFNEY
Excuse me. Dot com. Get, your hands on this letter. And for that matter, the others that, this distinguished group of officers as generated with journal articles leadership over the years, and and so to just pick up where we left off, sir, you were making the observation that diversity, equity, inclusion as, iteration of. Well, it goes back to what I said, cultural Marxism, is designed to divide and conquer.
And, could you just tease out what that means when it’s brought to bear against, from inside, no less? The only military we have as a nation at a time when we may well need.
ARBUCKLE
But that’s a great area to talk about. Be happy to Frank. We were talking earlier about how this ideology divides people, as you just said, into groups. And right now it’s based upon race and sexual orientation, gender. So it pits people against each other instead of pulling them together. And of course, our military’s always been based upon the fundamental of uniting people, not dividing them.
But here’s one of the spin off things that comes out of this, dividing people. And that is it sets up an oppressor versus oppressed mentality. In this case, the whites are the oppressors, the white supremacist and the minority groups are the oppressed. What that brings with it is a victimhood mentality on behalf of the minorities. Well, we’ve been victimized.
Therefore we’re entitled to some kind of special privileges. And from that comes special consideration. As for race and other things and things like selections for a military academy where standards are lower for, certain racial groups and even candy for females, the same thing on senior level promotion boards, key assignments, and also a command selection board. So that’s how this stuff comes together and is applied physically in terms of personnel actions.
And that’s extremely divisive.
GAFFNEY
You know, we don’t just ask you to tease it out a little bit by just talking about the alternative, which has been the historic, you know, talisman, I guess, with the military as well as practice. It’s a merit based, you know, appointments and promotions. For example, sir.
ARBUCKLE
Absolutely, Frank. Until DEI came along, historically and battle tested, we’ve had two things. As you just mentioned, equal opportunity for everyone doesn’t matter skin color, gender, whatever. And then selection for certain key actions based upon merit. Well, somebody performs and that’s meritocracy and action. That’s the way it should be. That’s the way it is on sports teams.
So if it’s good enough for sports teams to pick the best to play, why is it no longer good enough for our military to leaders.
GAFFNEY
Especially when the alternative is that you would wind up with people who are not qualified? Will not inspire confidence on the part of the troops, let alone assure success.
ARBUCKLE
Exactly. And even when applied, requires lowering of standards. That’s what equity is all about. It’s common outcomes. And in order to reach common outcomes, you have to lower standards.
GAFFNEY
And general, is it an exaggeration based on your considerable experience both in leadership positions and in combat, that if you get this wrong, that can translate into needless losses? Not just of people, but perhaps of, of battles and therefore the security of the country?
ARBUCKLE
Absolutely. America deserves to have the best qualified leaders taking their sons and daughters into combat. If we don’t have that, the risk is what you just said. The possible loss, probably reality, the losses of lives, maybe even battles. You want the best to fly the helicopters. You want the best surgeons? On and on and on.
Meritocracy works. And coming back to my earlier point, that’s why we have, sports teams that are so open to minority groups to pick the best athletes. It doesn’t matter, the skin color, just the best player. We need that in the military.
GAFFNEY
You know, general, I want to just ask you to address a little bit. You’ve studied it closely. You said, piece, what I think to two books, if I’m not mistaken, that he’s written, The War on Warriors: Behind the Betrayal of the Men Who Keep Us Free is the subtitle of. He has set his sights on unwinding what’s been done in terms of this.
Well, I call it fundamental transformation. To use Barack Obama’s line of the U.S. military. He’s obviously seized with it. Talk a little bit about his insights from the book. And and is it the case that these are like eggs and maybe you can’t unscramble them now that they’ve been broken?
ARBUCKLE
I believe from the book, Pete’s insights are basically the same thing that I just relayed about the divisive and, disastrous effects of DEI has on our military because it fragments our leadership, our trust and confidence in the leadership chain. Now, to get to your point, can you unwind the, I think and get it out of the military?
Yes, you can. And, in my view, it’s kind of a two step process. We have to have leaders in place, senior leaders that, want to focus solely on warfighting readiness and are willing to get rid of DEI. And then that has to be transmitted all the way down through the ranks that DEI is gone. We’re going to get back to our fundamentals of warfighting readiness, lethality and accountability.
Frank, accountability is so important. As you know, what’s missing today? In our military and our government. And so, yes, that can be done. But the signal has to come from the top, from the commander in chief, President Trump on the first day to say this stuff is over with, we’re going to get rid of it and do what we need to do to fight in our nation’s wars.
GAFFNEY
I don’t think we can emphasize that enough to merit based, you know, systems and processes and promotions and the like in the military. And general, it’s very heartening to hear you say that. I did want to ask you about STARRS, which, does, I think a superb job in particular of trying to root out this woke business, if you will.
I think that’s kind of a misleading term. Again, Marxist indoctrination in the service academies. I think that was where the the impetus came to start up STARRS in the first place. Were not mistaken. In addition to the leadership group, and there’s talk about having a commission of retired general officers, I hope you’ll be one of them to review the records of serving senior, leaders, three and four stars, to try to make sure that we understand where where they really have drunk this Kool-Aid and are therefore unfit to serve in this new rebooted military.
But also, sir, talk about the what’s happened to the a generation, maybe even two of military leaders that have come through the service academies with this kind of indoctrination as part of their record. What do you do about that?
ARBUCKLE
Well, that’ll take some time, I think, Frank, to change that mindset because they have been indoctrinated, as you’ve indicated. And same thing is true in our public school system.
GAFFNEY
Obviously big time.
ARBUCKLE
It will take time, but they will follow their leadership. And if the leadership does the right thing by resetting the chessboard and focusing on warfighting and flushing out DEI, they will come along. They will see the right thing to do. And I frankly believe when that order comes out from, President Trump, as I’m sure it will to get rid of the DEI, there’s going to be a sigh of relief throughout our military to take that weight off their back and focus on what they signed up to do.
GAFFNEY
And because I think it’s fair to say, sir, as as you certainly understand, the capable people, the kind of people you want in our military, understand that this is at best a distraction and at worst a wrecking operation. Let me just say, I cannot thank you enough for your leadership in this regard, as many, so many others. But, also how delighted we are to feature you here, general, and I hope we’ll have you back much more regularly in the future.
It’s been too long. I also want to say how, you know, completely committed, I personally am, and this program is to, confirming Pete Hegseth and to getting the military squared away, because I’m convinced, as we talk about every day, we may well need it in the very near future, and we need it to be in fighting term.
God bless you, my friend. Come back to us as I say, sir.
ARBUCKLE
Thank you Frank, I appreciate it.
GAFFNEY
Well Merry Christmas, merry Christmas. Stay tuned.
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