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A dozen Republican senators have accused the Defense Department of frittering away vital time by promoting a “leftist social agenda” to the military’s rank and file while ignoring “real threats across the world.”
“We face real threats across the world, yet the Biden administration is more focused on promoting its leftist social agenda in the military instead of countering China, Russia and Iran or creating an effective counterterrorism plan,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News.
The senators, all members of the chamber’s Armed Services Committee, were responding to a letter from Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Milley had responded to committee ranking member James Inhofe (R-Okla.), who sought information on the total number of man-hours and money the Pentagon spent on training related to climate change, extremism and diversity, equity and inclusion.
According to Milley, 5.3 million man-hours and $535,000 was spent on “stand downs” for discussion about extremism in the ranks – averaging out to roughly 2 hours per service member. Those conversations were ordered by Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in February of last year following the Capitol riot.
An additional 530,000 hours and $477,000 was spent on diversity, equity and inclusion training, according to Milley, while more than 1,000 hours and $5,000 were used for coordinating the Department’s Climate Adaptation Plan.
“Our military is not an extremist organization, and our service members, by and large all good people, are dedicated, faithful patriots,” the GOP senators reacted Monday.
“We are alarmed that so much training time and taxpayer money was devoted to a partisan, political agenda instead of recruiting, training and equipping the lethal force we need to defend this country,” they continued.
“The Department of Defense’s primary task is to protect Americans from foreign threats. If the Biden administration doesn’t make this a priority moving forward, we will use all tools at our disposal, including the annual defense authorization bill, to ensure that it does.”
In addition to Inhofe, the letter was signed by GOP Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Deb Fischer of Nebraska, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mike Rounds of South Dakota, Joni Ernst of Iowa, Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Dan Sullivan of Alaska, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Rick Scott of Florida, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
It comes as the Biden administration attempts to face down a potential invasion of Ukraine by Russia. An estimated 130,000 Russian troops are stationed along the border between the two nations.
While the US has vowed not to deploy any troops into Ukraine, several thousand have been sent to bolster NATO forces in Eastern and Southern Europe.
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