Republicans claim the Department of Defense spent approximately six million man-hours executing President Biden’s “leftist social agenda” across the army, a figure confirmed by the Pentagon.
“Stand Down” Meeting
There were meetings with military leaders where they talked about possible extremism in the ranks, as ordered by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin in February.
When Fox News Digital got Milley’s response, it was revealed more than 5.3 million hours and $535,000 were spent on these meetings; they were called “stand down” meetings by Austin.
SPENDING PRIORITIES: Biden's 'woke' agenda costs military 6 million man-hours, Republicans say https://t.co/WajSgNF2bR
— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 15, 2022
As Milley put it, “this amounts to little more than two hours per service member in a total force of 2.46 million members; this is equivalent to other Joint Force periodic training needs.”
It also indicated around 530,000 hours and $477,000 were spent on new DEI training. More than 1,000 hours and $5,000 were spent on organizing the Department of Defense’s Climate Adaptation Plan, according to the letter.
On Monday, Jim Inhofe, a Republican on the Armed Services Committee, along with 11 other Republicans, wrote a letter. They say the Department of Defense is putting service members first, while relations with Russia and China worsen.
"We face real threats across the world, yet the Biden administration is more focused on promoting its leftist social agenda in the military instead of countering China, Russia and Iran or creating an effective counter-terrorism plan." https://t.co/YlSoaUM9OA
— Graham Clark (@HargMac) February 15, 2022
As the senators pointed out in their letter, “we face real threats around the world. Yet, Biden is keener on promoting his leftist social agenda in the military than on combating China, Russia, and Iran or developing an effective counterterrorism scheme.”
“Our military is not an extreme institution, and our service members, who are by and large all fine people, are committed, loyal patriots.”
Unnecessary Waste of Taxpayer’s Money
Additionally, the lawmakers cited a December report by the Department of Defense. This disclosed fewer than 100 military members were found to have been involved in unlawful extremist actions over the previous year.
This implies for every instance of extremism discovered in the military, service members spent approximately 54,000 hours in training on extremism.
In addition, lawmakers expressed concern that a lot of training time and taxpayer money got diverted to furthering a political, partisan agenda instead of recruiting, training, and equipping the force required to protect the nation.
“The principal mission of the Department of Defense is to defend the United States against foreign threats. If going ahead, the Biden administration does not make this a priority, we will use all of the instruments at our disposal to force them to do so.”
In addition to Inhofe, Republican Senators Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Tillis of North Carolina, Joni Ernst of Iowa, signed the letter.
Other signatures came from Thom Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Rick Scott of Florida, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Kevin Cramer of North Dakota.
It’s a form of reassurance that at least some Republican senators decided to question such excessive use of taxpayers’ money.
