THE MORNING RANT – Could Secretary of Defense Kurt Schlichter Rid the Military of DEI?

[Ace will be along shortly with extensive coverage of the media/Democrat wish-fulfillment extravaganza that took place in Butler, Pennsylvania on Saturday night.]

My apologies, but I’m traveling, so there is not much original writing from me today. Instead, I’m just going to extract a few paragraphs from a very disturbing story about DEI indoctrination in the military, and then follow with some stern advice from Kurt Schlichter on how President Trump needs to respond on Day 1 of his presidency to rid the military of its woke rot.

“Space force commander who says he lost pension for criticizing DEI in military opens up on being betrayed” [Fox News – 07/05/2024]

A former space commander is calling for a change of leadership after he was fired for allegedly criticizing the "Marxist" DEI complex, which he believes is now being accelerated under the Biden administration. Former Lt. Col. Matt Lohmeier was in the military for over a decade before he joined the U.S. Space Force in 2020, where he specialized in missile warning systems. But less than a year later, in May 2021, he was "betrayed," he told Fox News Digital in an interview.

Lohmeier publicly spoke out against DEI training because he believed it was dividing the troops and decreasing morale, which affected military readiness. He believes "the DEI industry… is steeped in critical race theory, is rooted in anti-American, Marxist ideology." "The blow was severe," Lohmeier said about allegedly being fired for his dissenting views. "It makes you feel like you've been betrayed."

He said it was a real "gut punch" when he lost his pension.

Here is what Col. Schlichter recommends.

“Fixing the Military Requires a Dying Art Called 'Leadership'” [Kurt Schlichter – Townhall – 7/04/2024]

We need real military leadership again, starting at the top. We need a new commander-in-chief, but we also need a new Secretary of Defense, one who leads our military instead of managing it. He cannot be a bureaucrat cloistered in a fancy office in the Pentagon and hope to fix this mess. The Secretary of Defense, though a civilian, is in the chain of command, so he should command. He must get his intent out there in no uncertain terms. He must expect that his orders reforming the military be swiftly and efficiently carried out. And he must nuke any resistance he gets without hesitation or mercy.

He must give the orders – not suggestions – to move the military toward his objective, a lethal combat-oriented force. The new SecDef needs to do that on Day One.

He must immediately re-establish that the United States Armed Forces is a military organization and will function as such. This is a resource-tight environment – there’s no time or money for fluff or nonsense. Anything that does not go toward deterring or destroying America’s enemies must go.

First, get rid of DEI. It’s done, over, gone. No more “X Month,” no more babble about how “diversity is our strength.” Our strength is our strength, meaning our ability to kill the enemy. The diversity pap posters come down, the civilian DEI personnel are terminated as excess, and any uniformed personnel in DEI slots are reassigned to real jobs. This will be accomplished in seven days; each joint chief will report personally to the SecDef that it has been done. When asked if his order has been carried out, the only acceptable answer is “Yes, sir.” Some of those joint chiefs will be new because some are getting retired on Day One.

Second, the priority is fighting and the skills that go along with fighting. No more climate hoax nonsense, no more babble about green tanks, no more non-military military education—the military academies and war colleges have lost their way. Their job is to turn out killers. Too often, they turn out woke losers. Fire the heads of all the service schools and replace them with new leaders who get that their mission is to churn out fighters, not schmoozers.

The new SecDef must take a hands-on approach to pick aggressive, capable future leaders within the force as George Marshall did with his legendary notebook of officers to watch. Scrap the boards and have the SecDef and his designees manage the officer corps directly. Personnel is policy. The SecDef must pick his team down to the O5 (lieutenant colonel and Navy commander) level.

He needs to make short-notice trips to see what’s really happening elsewhere. “Ladies and gentlemen, this afternoon I am flying to – let’s see – how about Newport News to look at ships? I want a helicopter on the pad in an hour. Don’t tell the base commander. It’ll be a surprise.” And then he needs to go, along with some Navy subject matter expert straphangers, and ask questions like, “Admiral, why is that destroyer covered in rust instead of gleaming? Wait, let me ask your second-in-command because he’s now in charge since you are relieved.”

But there will be covert resistance to the SecDef’s reforms. That’s why he must trim the Pentagon’s bloated civilian staff starting Day One. There is a lot of talk about how you cannot fire civil service personnel. That’s not so – you just have to do it right. And you don’t necessarily need to fire them – you can solve the problem by transferring them. Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska will get a bunch of new civilian workers.

There’s much more, and it’s all just as good, so please give it a link.

But I will contribute one original idea to this post today. Where will President Trump find someone with the vision to fix the military in the manner recommended by Kurt Schlichter? I have a suggestion…

…Secretary of Defense Kurt Schlichter.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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