Stop fighting culture wars, US senator tells army chiefs after training defeat to Royal Marines
‘Stop using the military as a giant social experiment, which is what the Left seems to want’
THE Royal Marines were able to dominate US forces in a training exercise because the Pentagon is preoccupied with culture wars rather than actual fighting, a prominent Republican senator said last night.
Josh Hawley, 41, a Donald Trump supporter who sits on the Senate armed services committee, criticised the US defence secretary and America’s most senior general after US forces surrendered to the British halfway through a simulation in the California desert.
In the wake of the incident, Mr Hawley accused the military leadership under Joe Biden’s administration of being too concerned with having soldiers read about critical race theory and “white rage”, instead of prioritising battle training.
During Exercise Green Dagger in the California desert at the end of October, as revealed in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, Royal Marines forced US troops to ask for a “reset” half way through, after the Americans suffered significant simulated casualties. At one point the British “kill board” showed almost every US asset had been destroyed or rendered inoperable. When the exercise ended, the Royal Marines controlled more than 65 per cent of the area being fought over, having started with less than 20 per cent.
Mr Hawley said Lloyd Austin, the defence secretary, and General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, had got their priorities wrong. He added that China would have been observing the defeat to the Royal Marines as it contemplated a potential future invasion of Taiwan.
Asked what China’s reaction to the British triumph would be, Mr Hawley told Fox News: “They’re probably wondering why it is that people like General Milley and Secretary Austin spend so
much time recommending books on white rage, on critical race theory, and are not more focused on war-fighting.
“Here’s my view: we’ve got the best soldiers, airmen, marines in the entire world. Our soldiers are amazing war fighters. Let them fight.
“Train them to fight. Let them do what they do best. And stop using the military as a giant social experiment, which is what the Left seems to want.”
Earlier this year, Gen Milley defended the military offering soldiers instruction on critical race theory and “understanding white rage”.
He told Congress: “I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned, non-commissioned officers of being, quote ‘woke’ or something else, because we’re studying some theories that are out there.”
The senator also said the Pentagon should be prioritising military readiness in Taiwan. “we need to get ready to defend right now. This ought to be the priority rather than assigning our troops to read stuff on critical race theory, white rage and white supremacy and all of these other Left-wing pursuits.”
Earlier this week Mr Hawley said that efforts to combat toxic masculinity in society had thrust men into an “enclave of idleness and pornography and video games”.