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From the Article by Journalist Patricia Tolson:
On Jan. 25, 2021, Mr. Biden signed an executive order enabling “all qualified Americans to serve their country in uniform,” saying “gender identity should not be a bar to military service.” Two months later, the Pentagon announced new policies (pdf) that canceled the Trump-era policy banning transgender people from serving in the military.
Retired Rear Adm. Charles R. Kubic agrees that the “wokeism” in the military has to go.
“It’s the whole DEI program and the whole issue of CRT and other things that are finding their way into military training,” Mr. Kubic told The Epoch Times, noting how the new system of selection and promotion within the military structure is “moving away from meritocracy towards more of a quota system.”
Critical race theory (CRT) is a quasi-Marxist framework that views the United States as systemically racist and divides people into the role of oppressed and oppressor.
Mr. Kubic once served as one of Mr. Trump’s top foreign policy advisers.
In a May 20 letter to U.S. House leadership (pdf), Mr. Kubic and over 160 retired generals and admirals asked Congress to “take legislative action” to remove all DEI programs from the Department of Defense and to “ensure no DEI-related policies, programs, and funding are included in the 2024 [National Defense Authorization Act].”
The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 narrowly passed in Congress on July 14 by a vote margin of 219–210.
“There’s always been an ‘affirmative action’ look in promotion boards for the past 30 years or so,” Mr. Kubic said. “But we’re proceeding into an area where the whole idea of DEI and quality of outcome rather than opportunity has infiltrated into both the promotion and the assignment system.”
Mr. Kubic said there’s a systemic “lack of confidence in command at the operational and tactical level within the military” because of what they see as “a cultural war against the ethos of the war-fighting military.”
“How many people are just tired of all the political pressure that’s coming on them to live within this new woke culture?” he asked, insisting that the whole premise of woke ideology “just doesn’t mesh with the ethos we need to have war-fighting units within our military.”
“I think that’s a big problem,” Mr. Kubic asserted. “Hopefully our next commander-in-chief will fix that, including who he or she will appoint to various positions within the political civilian bureaucracy within the military.”
Over 230 retired senior military officials have endorsed Mr. Trump in his reelection campaign in a joint letter.
Stan Fitzgerald, a retired police detective and president of Veterans for America First/Veterans for Trump, acknowledges that Mr. DeSantis “is a good governor” and has done a lot for the military in the state of Florida. However, he says Mr. Trump “has an established track record for running the country and he has always been good to veterans and first responders on a national level.”
Mr. Fitzgerald also told The Epoch Times that feedback from the millions of veterans and first responders who visit his organization’s website says “they are supporting President Trump” because they see Mr. DeSantis as part of the “establishment.”
While Mr. Fitzgerald conceded it “may sound slanted” that the veterans group would back the former president as their candidate of choice, he said he’s “not sure DeSantis has that kind of national support.”
On Nov. 15, 2022, Veterans for America First announced its support for Mr. Trump’s 2024 campaign.
While commending the accomplishments of Mr. DeSantis as governor in support of Florida’s active military, veterans, and their families, Mr. Fitzgerald believes Mr. Trump will have more success in bringing necessary changes to the military because of his track record in fulfilling his promises on a national level.
He noted how the accomplishments of Mr. DeSantis have come in a deep red state with super-majorities in both the state House and Senate and not a single Democrat in any state-level office. As president, Mr. DeSantis would have only a slim majority in the U.S. House and a Senate controlled by Democrats.
“Trump is the originator of the America First movement and it’s ‘Promises Made, Promises Kept,’” Mr. Fitzgerald said.
The 2019 Veterans of Foreign Wars “Our Care” Report (pdf) revealed that 74 percent of the 6,900 veterans surveyed said they saw significant improvements in health care at their local Veterans Affairs hospital because of the Mission Act.
“Trump keeps his word. Everything he said he was going to do he did, if it was within his power,” Mr. Fitzgerald said. “I’m not sure you will get that from Ron DeSantis.”
Mr. Kubic concurs.
“Trump would handle this in the first week,” he said bluntly.
“It would be a done deal,” he asserted, explaining that Mr. DeSantis could do it, “but it wouldn’t be done as quickly.”
“He would have a settling-in period,” in which he could “listen to opposing points of view and try to understand or figure out what to do,” Mr. Kubic explained.
The other candidates, he said, “would have a hard time figuring out how to handle this in this immense bureaucracy in the Department of Defense, particularly if they’ve never had any prior military service.”
“Trump would get it done right away. DeSantis would get it done in time. The others would struggle to get it done,” he said.
