The Committee to Support and Defend has initiated a petition to the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to “honor his oath” to “support and defend” the Constitution of the United States. The petition “respectfully insists” that Austin immediately countermand orders he has issued since taking office that have eroded military cohesion and readiness. The petition argues that Critical Race Theory is a toxic Marxist ideology with anti-constitutional objectives. Ordering its teaching in the military endangers America’s national security, in contravention to Austin’s oath to protect and defend the Constitution and the United States from all enemies.
The petition is the third scathing criticism of the Biden administration’s policies that retired generals and admirals and other military veterans have issued in recent weeks, citing concerns over national security and the dangers to our liberties. In an unprecedented action, over 200 retired generals and admirals issued a letter in May that stated that the United States is facing the “greatest danger to our constitutional Republic since 1776.” The letter stated that our nation is in “deep peril” as we fight the supporters of Marxism who are opposed to our constitutional freedoms and liberties.Last week, the Committee to Support and Defend, led by LTC Allen West (ret.), issued a letter signed by over 1,000 military veterans that stated that as veterans, they are still morally and ethically bound to protect our Constitution and country. They wrote:
As such, we put our nation’s leadership on notice. We believe that the hard left turn toward Socialism and Marxism endangers our citizens and the future of this great nation…We are disgusted by the dismantling of the rule of law in our great country. We never thought we would see the return to Vietnam style disdain for public service. Unfortunately, this disregard and disrespect is corrosive and will lead to dangerous situations for citizens and law enforcement.
Now retired military leaders are joining with their fellow citizens to petition the government to end the undermining of our military and calling on Secretary Austin to honor his oath to protect and defend our Constitution and country. In a hitherto unheard of action, retired military leaders and veterans are publicly stating that the secretary of defense is endangering the effectiveness of the U.S. military as a fighting force and is violating his sacred oath to defend our country. Specifically, the petition — which is available for signatures by both veterans and civilians at committeetosupportanddefend.com — “respectfully insists” that the former four-star Army general and commander of Central Command take immediate action to:
- Shut down the Countering Extremism Working Group, which is fracturing the cohesiveness of the armed forces
- Fire its director, Bishop Garrison, senior adviser for diversity and inclusion, whose programs vilify our Constitution and are an affront to patriotic Americans
- Prohibit further Critical Race Theory training and related programs to the armed forces personnel; these are Marxist tactics designed to pit one group against another by falsely teaching that our country is inherently racist, with whites as the oppressor and blacks as the oppressed
- Reinstate a brilliant officer, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Lohmeier — who has warned against actual extremism in the Defense Department — as the commander of the 11th Space Warning Group, and
- Restore to service other personnel who have been wrongly accused of “extremism” but who are, like LTC Lohmeier, simply opponents of anti-constitutional ideologies like Marxism.
The first signatory of the petition and founding member of Flag Officers for America (www.flagofficers4america.com), Major General Joe Arbuckle, U.S. Army (ret.), stated:
Critical Race Theory and other such programs were created by Marxists to divide people into groups based on oppressors vs. oppressed. It is designed to sow discord and distrust in each other. This is exactly the opposite of the team building based on the mutual trust essential to military units’ readiness and deterrent effectiveness. If allowed to continue the in the Defense Department, CRT and other such divisive programs will do tremendous damage to our military, its mission, and therefore, our Nation. Like me and countless other veterans, Secretary Ausitn has sworn to prevent such harm to our Constitution and country. We call on him to honor the oath and shut down the indoctrination and purging of our armed forces pursuant to Marxist Critical Race Theory.
The open letters from our military leaders and veterans call for action now to save America before it is too late and our treasured institutions are destroyed from within. Military leaders issued a citizens’ action plan that citizens can take on the local level. The quickest action would be to sign the petition at committeetosupportanddefend.com to stop the destruction of our military.
To comment, you can find the MeWe post for this article here.
This column was originally published at The American Thinker.
The views expressed in guest columns are not necessarily the views or positions of the CCNS or its members.
