Back in 1951 then General of the Army Douglas MacArthur addressed a Joint meeting of both houses of Congress, following his removal from command in Korea by then President Harry S Truman. In his speech he made famous the quote, “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away”.
Apparently retired four star general Stanley McChrystal, who appears not to be a fan of how Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is running the Department of Defense, should consider taking General MacArthur’s comments to heart.
During a recent interview on the CBS news program ‘Face the Nation’, McChrystal voiced his disagreement with Secretary Hegseth’s efforts to clean out Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs from the Pentagon.
According to McChrystal, “I think the DEI thing is, frankly, a distraction. It’s not helpful”. Not unexpected from someone who admitted to voting before for Barack Hussein Obama, and later offering his endorsement to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
The Department of Defense under Joe Biden’s Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had become an organization overtaken more by concerns about DEI, and far less about how to defend America, and if necessary to fight and win wars. Pentagon offices were festooned with rainbow flags, and placards which declared ones’ pronouns instead of quotes from REAL generals like George S. Patton, Omar Bradley, and even Douglas MacArthur, along with many others from the ‘greatest generation’ who knew how to lead troops, and win wars.
I would argue that McChrystal’s comment about DEI certainly calls into question his own judgement as a supposed senior military leader. It was pretty obvious to anyone who wasn’t wearing stars on their collar that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were totally incompetent in their handling of national security matters, and of the military in particular.
All one has to do is look at the disastrous and tragic withdrawal from Afghanistan, which cost thirteen American service members their lives. Add to that the dismal military recruiting numbers and poor morale, and I think it speaks loudly to the incompetence and misguided policies of Joe Biden’s handlers and his Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
In fact, Biden’s entire national security team were either blind, deaf, or in denial if they were not aware of Joe Biden’s infirmities. It’s was obvious to any objective observer that Joe Biden wasn’t up to the job, so the critical and important day-to-day decisions most certainly were being made by a cabal of senior administration individuals who were clearly aware of Biden’s condition.
Those administration officials actually running the White House likely included his National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, among others. Who knows, maybe even Hunter Biden had a hand in the disaster that his father’s administration had become. None of those working feverishly behind the scenes to “fundamentally transform” this country were elected by the American people in November of 2020.
Based on the damage done to our national security and our prestige in the world, all of them were in way over their heads. Just as many of those same people were when they worked for Barack Hussein Obama during his administration, which was uniformly disrespected by our adversaries back then.
It is now being confirmed that indeed from the very start of his term in office, Joe Biden was cognitively unable to fulfill his oath of office to protect and defend our country against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Yet he was allowed to sit behind the Resolute Desk – for an hour or two a day anyway – while others ran the country.
Again, Biden’s incapacity was something that was blatantly obvious to many Americans who weren’t generals. Yet McChrystal apparently believed that both Biden and Harris had the qualities of leadership and experience to lead our nation through a very dangerous period of time, or he wouldn’t have endorsed them.
I think Stanley McChrystal is a perfect example of what Secretary of Defense Hegseth was talking about when he recently alluded to the fact that we have too many four star officers in the military. Reminiscent of a time when real war fighters and true leaders like Colonel David Hackworth warned us about during the Vietnam War, referring to the senior ranks and Pentagon leadership as the “perfumed princes”.
While I certainly respect former General McChrystal’s military service and his dedication to this country, I’m not convinced by his arguments. I think SECDEF Pete Hegseth is just the right person at just the right time to fix what ails our armed forces. As Hegseth would probably say, we don’t need more generals, we just need more leaders.
Old Soldiers like Stanley McChrystal need to just go away, and let people like Pete Hegseth and others work to fix the mess that was created by the (Obama) Biden Administration.
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