A week ago, we told you how President Donald Trump fired U.S. Navy Admiral Lisa Franchetti, and she wasn't alone. This is all part of President Trump's push to remove DEI and wokeness from military ranks.
Trump also fired Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, in a move The New York Times called 'breaking with tradition.'
Now five former Defense Chiefs want congressional hearings on those firings:
More from Military.com (emphasis added):
Late last week, Trump fired Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr. as chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed that by firing Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations; Gen. Jim Slife, vice chief of the Air Force; and the judge advocates general for the military services.
Hegseth has defended the firing of Brown, saying that other presidents made changes in military personnel and that Trump deserves to pick his own team. Hegseth said he fired the JAGs because he didn’t think they were “well-suited” to provide recommendations when lawful orders are given.
The letter — signed by William Perry, Leon Panetta, Chuck Hagel, Jim Mattis and Lloyd Austin — said there were no real justifications for the firings because several of the officers had been nominated by Trump for previous positions. And it said they had exemplary careers, including operational and combat experience.
Some outlets portrayed the call as a 'bipartisan', pointing to the inclusion of Chuck Hagel and Jim Mattis as some sort of proof that Trump's actions are offensive to both sides of the aisle.
Hagel was part of Barack Obama's so-called 'bipartisan' cabinet, so the definition of 'bipartisan' is: three Democrats, a Republican who served in a Democrat administration, and a guy appointed by a Republican he despised. Mattis resigned, after sending letters to The Atlantic criticizing Trump's policies.
Speaking of Barack Obama, let's remember that five months into his first term, Obama fired Army Gen. David McKiernan as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. This was the first time a president dismissed a wartime commander since Harry S. Truman fired Gen. Douglas MacArthur in 1951.
In five years, Obama removed 197 military officers to better align staff with his administration's goals. An editorial at Investor's Business Daily chided the move, but recognized that it was Obama's prerogative to align the military with his vision.
They wrote:
What the president calls "my military" is being cleansed of any officer suspected of disloyalty to or disagreement with the administration on matters of policy or force structure, leaving the compliant and fearful.
We recognize President Obama is the commander-in-chief and that throughout history presidents from Lincoln to Truman have seen fit to remove military commanders they view as inadequate or insubordinate. Turnover in the military ranks is normal, and in these times of sequestration and budget cuts the numbers are expected to tick up as force levels shrink and missions change.
Donald Trump gets the same latitude. And not just because Obama did it, but because it's Constitutional, per Article II, Section 2:
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
The Left -- always playing Calvinball -- will call what Barack Obama did 'policy' and argue he can change it at his will as a privilege of the presidency. But the second a Republican does it, it becomes a nefarious political persecution.
It's one or the other, Lefties.
Much of the current house-cleaning is also self-inflicted.
Throughout Donald Trump's first term, he talked of 'draining the swamp' but never did much in terms of reforming government. What followed was a bureaucracy that sought to resist and undermine Trump at every turn.
It's clear in his second term that Donald Trump has learned his lesson from that experience. He is going to make sure the people who staff his administration will not throw wrenches into its inner workings.
Trump has a mandate from American voters to purge the wokeness and DEI from the ranks of our military. Both morale and recruitment are in the toilet because the military's focus is on social agendas and not its primary purpose: raising a strong force to defend America from her enemies. Removing officers who adhere to DEI nonsense is Trump fulfilling the promises of his campaign.
It's also adorable that these Defense Chiefs think a Republican-led Congress will ever entertain a hearing on this because they have bigger fish to fry.
This is just performative political theater, and the Chiefs would do better to find a hobby for retirement rather than meddling in the affairs of an administration they do not serve.
