Op-Ed: General Milley, critical race theory and why GOP’s ‘woke’ military concerns miss the mark – By Jeff McCausland, retired Army colonel and former member of the National Security Council (NBC News) / June 28 2021
When it comes to developing future military leaders, Congress needs to be following Milley and Austin’s lead — not the other way around.
Last Wednesday, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared before the House Armed Services Committee to talk about the 2022 Defense Department budget.
During the hearing, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., challenged Austin about, among other things, the teaching of critical race theory (CRT) in the U.S. military. A relatively amorphous term often referring to the academic study of race and anti-racist movements, CRT has become a catch-all cause celebre for culture war conservatives. Later in the hearing, another Florida Republican, Rep. Michael Waltz, a military veteran, noted that CRT appeared in an elective at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and “white rage” was the focus of a seminar voluntarily attended by 100 cadets.
The general also reminded the committee that West Point is a university and that it is crucially important for those in uniform “to be open-minded and widely read.”
Milley made it clear that the U.S. military does not “teach” critical race theory and dismissed as offensive the characterization of officers and noncommissioned officers as ”woke.” But the general also reminded the committee that West Point is a college and that it is crucially important for those in uniform “to be open-minded and widely read.”
