- Derrick Anderson, a former Green Beret is urging the Department of Defense to halt its search for military extremism.
- He is a retired Green Beret and past candidate for the Virginia congressional seat.
- enate Armed Services Committee sent the Department of Defense (DOD) its 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)
Derrick Anderson, a former Green Beret is urging the Department of Defense to halt its search for military extremism following a “fruitless” study and recommendation from the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Derrick is retired Green Beret and past candidate for the Virginia congressional seat said, “I hope that the DOD and the Biden administration take the advice so that our service people can get back to the war-fighting responsibilities that they’re supposed to be trained on.
Last month, the Senate Armed Services Committee sent the Department of Defense (DOD) its 2023 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which contained a recommendation to suspend its initiatives to combat extremism within the ranks.
By a razor-thin margin of 14-12, the report that accompanied the measure was adopted. It claims that “the vast majority of service members serve with honour and distinction, and that the narrative around systemic extremism in the military besmirches the men and women in uniform.”
According to the study, “the committee believes that the Department of Defense should cease immediately from devoting additional time and resources to combating exceptionally rare incidents of extremism in the military.
“As we’ve seen with the Democrats over and over again, they’re digging their heels in on these types of woke policies instead of just coming to the table and saying, hey, maybe we were wrong on this,” Anderson said, expressing disappointment over the committee’s Democrats’ decision to vote against the recommendation.
Following the discovery of military connections among some of the defendants indicted in connection with the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a military-wide “stand down” to confront extremism in February 2021.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman provided a breakdown of the time and money spent battling this claimed extremism in the ranks on January 2, 2022. There were 5,359,000 hours and more than $500,000 spent on the stand down, not including the price of creating the CEAWG report, according to Chairman Milley’s letter to the committee.
Anderson referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s suggestion to cease anti-extremism initiatives as “basically saying that it’s a waste of public resources to be performing this training when our military people should be otherwise training for conflict.”
Less than 100 cases of confirmed extremist activity were found in 2021, according to a December report from the Pentagon’s Countering Extremist Activity Working Group (CEAWG), which was established in April 2021.
The U.S. military has about 2.1 million active-duty and reserve members, thus 100 instances is about.005 percent of the total force.
Anderson questioned, “Why are we squandering taxpayer money on 0.005% of our military who are deemed extremists?
Anderson claimed that the focus on eradicating extremism has had a negative influence on recruitment efforts in addition to the financial load on taxpayers and the impact on training for combat preparedness.
All military branches are having trouble filling open positions with less than three months left in the fiscal year.
According to NBC, only 9% of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 who could enlist in the military expressed any interest in doing so, the lowest percentage since 2007.
Due to difficulties in recruitment, the U.S. Army anticipates having to reduce the number of its forces in the upcoming years, which has already caused them to fall 10,000 soldiers short of their target for this year. The Air Force is 4,000 recruits short of its objective.
According to Ret. Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr of the Heritage Foundation, this is the worst recruiting situation the military has faced since 1973, when the United States terminated the draught and pulled out of Vietnam.
“It makes sense why we don’t have the same levels of recruiting when you consider the policies that the Biden administration and Secretary Austin are implementing. There is no explanation for why people are leaving the military in such large numbers “said Anderson.
The Pentagon has recently been under fire after records obtained exclusively by Fox News Digital from the government watchdog group Judicial Watch revealed that West Point Cadets were being taught critical race theory.
As for the Pentagon’s emphasis on social justice efforts, Anderson said, “Some might call them ‘woke’—everyone has their own distinct language for them—at the end of the day, they’re not war-fighting functions, I can tell you that.
More than 30 current and past service members were interviewed by Fox News Digital in April. All of them shared similar sentiments and categorically stated that they had never witnessed extremist activity among their peers.
Anderson claimed that during his six overseas tours with the Special Forces, he never once saw extremism.
“We will always be there for one another if those bullets start flying. While I was in the military, I personally did not encounter it, and I worked with some of the best and most varied soldiers I have ever met “veteran of war said.
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