Senior enlisted US military leaders pushed back against Republican lawmakers’ assertions on Thursday that the force is being politicized by what Republicans called “woke” initiatives that the lawmakers claim are hurting recruitment and distracting from the military’s mission.
In response to questioning at a congressional hearing from Republican Rep. Mike Waltz, an Army National Guard officer, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Michael Grinston said Waltz’s comments about politicizing the military were, in a way, contributing to the politicization.
He added that the Army is there to “support and defend the nation and the Constitution of everybody … That’s what good soldiers do. That’s what we swore, that we would defend the Constitution of America.”
Several Republican lawmakers have taken issue with the military’s efforts to increase inclusion and diversity in the force over the last couple of years, while military leaders have said those efforts help ensure that the US has the best fighting force possible. Lawmakers have pointed to a Pentagon directive in 2021 for leaders to discuss extremism in the ranks with their troops as an example of politicizing the military, as well as recruiting campaigns launched by the Army that sought to highlight its diverse force.
The issue has boiled over in other congressional hearings, leading to tense exchanges between military leaders and lawmakers. In one such moment during a House Armed Services hearing in 2021, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said it was “offensive” that troops were being called “quote, ‘woke’ or something else, because we’re studying some theories that are out there.”
The issue came up multiple times during Thursday’s hearing. In one moment, Republican Rep. Cory Mills pressed leaders on “pronoun training” in the services and criticized what he…
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