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FMR Special Forces Soldier urges Pentagon to end the ‘woke’ witch hunt for extremism
A retired Soldier who served with Special Forces says that the Defense Department should call off its search for extremism in the military after the Senate Armed Services Committee made similar recommendations and released a “fruitless” investigation.
Derrick Anderson, a former Green Beret who ran for Congress in Virginia said, “I hope that the DoD and the Biden administration take the recommendation so that our service members can get back to the war-fighting functions that they’re supposed to be training on.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pentagon should end 'woke' hunt for military extremism, says former Green Beret <a href="https://t.co/YPGcIQgE3E">https://t.co/YPGcIQgE3E</a></p>— Fox News (@FoxNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1550382685062922240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 22, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Last month, the Senate Armed Services Committee included in its submission of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) a recommendation to put an end to their counter-extremism efforts.
In a report submitted with the bill, its said that “the vast majority of service members serve with honor and distinction, and that the narrative surrounding systemic extremism in the military besmirches the men and women in uniform.”
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The report was approved in a 12 to 14 vote and continues, “The committee believes that spending additional time and resources to combat exceptionally rare instances of extremism in the military is an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds and should be discontinued by the Department of Defense immediately.”
Anderson expressed dismay towards the left side of the aisle after they voted against the proposal saying, “as we’ve seen with the Democrats over and over again, they’re digging their heels in on these types of woke policies instead of just coming to the table and saying, ‘hey, maybe we were wrong on this.’”
He argued that “the Senate Armed Services Committee has essentially said that it’s a waste of taxpayer dollars to be conducting this training when our service members should be otherwise training for combat.”
Anderson was citing an investigation that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin initiated in 2021, the Countering Extremist Activity Working Group (CEAWG), which pointed to less than 100 confirmed instances of extremism.
100 instances in a 2.1 million-strong force equates to approximately .005% of the military.
Anderson asked, “Why are we wasting taxpayer dollars on 0.005% of our military being considered extremist?’”
Anderson also attacked the Pentagon’s initiatives focused on social justice, including diversity, equity, and inclusion, saying, “Some might call them ‘woke’– everyone has their different terminology for them– at the end of the day, they’re not war-fighting functions, I can tell you that.”
