Matt Gaetz Blasts Secretary of Defense Austin Over Defense’s Horrible Record on Strategy and Everything Else – Opinion

Tuesday’s House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Fiscal Year 2023 Defense Budget Request produced some great theater as Florida Representative Matt Gaetz took on the shabby and incompetent record of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Although it started innocently, the men were able to display their contempt for each other.

Gaetz. Secretary Austin: Why would American taxpayers finance lectures at National Defense University that promote Socialism as a Strategy to Combat China?

Austin: The National Defense University is an academic institution and I don’t know of any such lecture…

Gaetz: That’s surprising because it was widely reported. The National Defense University had Thomas Piketty come and this was the title of his lecture “Responding to China: The Cae for Global Justice and Democratic Socialism. Now that you are aware of what they did, do you think that adopting socialism to fight China is a poor strategy?

Austin: I certainly don’t agree with embracing socialism.

Gaetz: So that means…

Committee chairman white knighting for Austin: I’m sorry, we’re not going to do this. We’re not going to let the guy talk, say four words, and then cut him off. We’re not…

Gaetz: Mr. Chairman, I have control of the time.

White Knight: You have to show fairness to your witness.

Gaetz, I received the information I was looking for. A follow-up is planned. My follow up question is, if we don’t embrace it, then why did the National Defense University put out a statement, again this is funded by US taxpayers, saying, “In this talk, Mr. Piketty will argue that the right answer lies in ending Western arrogance and promoting a new emancipatory and egalitarian horizon on a global scale, a new form of democratic and participatory, ecological and postcolonial socialism.” Why would we invite people we don’t agree with to evangelize views and values that we don’t share at the National Defense University when we should be learning strategy about how to combat our enemies and make assessments that are accurate.

Gaetz began to drag Austin around on various topics. The Defense Department had predicted it would take months or even years for Taliban control in Afghanistan. They also forecast a simple Russian victory in Ukraine. His machinations on Austin included a beating of Russia and China, as well as stealing our lead in the fielding hypersonic rockets. Amazingly, Austin claimed that Gaetz was ashamed of America for having the nerve to ask questions about America’s wide-ride. He wanted 730 billion dollars of America’s hard-earned money.

Gaetz: No, no, no, I’m embarrassed by your leadership. I’m not embarrassed for my country. It would be a shame if we lost to China. I wish we were not losing… You know what, that’s, that is so disgraceful that you’d here and conflate your failures with the failures of the uniformed service members. According to you, Russia will overthrow Ukraine within 36 days. Your prediction that the Taliban would not be allowed to enter Ukraine for several months was false. You totally blew those calls and maybe we’d be better at them if the National Defense University worked a little more on strategy and a little less on wokeism.

Austin: Has it occurred to you that Russia has not overrun Ukraine because what we’ve done and our allies have done?

Gaetz, But this was baked in to your flawed assessment. As I observed that Obama attempted to decimate our military’s resources by starving them, the Biden administration seems to be trying to end our military’s existence by force-feeding it wokeism.

Let’s face it.

At the top, our military is an inept mess. This military is becoming more partisan. Even though the public thinks of general officers and admirals as raging fascists, they are largely fiscally and socially liberal Democrats; see Obama’s Generals. Wakeism, in all of its forms, is the currency of the realm. The coda of “duty, honor, country,” if not dead, is on life support. Rember General Milley almost in open mutiny to President Trump. At Fort Belvoir in Virginia, the US Army Museum has an exhibit honoring Major General (ret.). Tammy Smith. What they don’t bother to tell you is that she lied about her sexual deviancy to maintain her career, most of which was spent in the era when homosexuality was, rightfully, considered incompatible with military service. They also gloss over the dozens of senior officers who knew that Smith was homosexual and elected to sponsor her for promotion (see The Official Outrage Over Tucker Carlson’s Critique of Joe Biden’s Military Shows Just How Lost Our Military Is). The President gave us direct orders from the Navy Admirals, which we had to counter (see Trump wins this one). Chief Eddie Gallagher will keep his Seal Trident, but the Mutineers are still at large.

The Navy is our military’s buffer against war with China. It more closely looks like a welfare program to defense contractors rather than a military service.

This Administration once again chose the divest to invest strategy, as though any future conflicts will not happen for at least 20 years. Aquilino & Admirals Davidson are not in agreement. 2/7

— Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) March 29, 2022

The proposal is to decommission 24 vessels, 11 of which have less than 10 year old. One ship has served less than two years, and two are in modernization. 4/7

— Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) March 29, 2022

China is not a “pacing challenge” when they will soon have double the size of our Navy. There is no plan to replace the 1000+ VLS cells that we are losing. Instead, we are investing in the next “Gucci” missile and technology that will not be mature for 20+ years. 6/7

— Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) March 29, 2022

Finally, the Navy doesn’t have any strategy. Do not say you do. You would then be able, if asked, to describe how the Fleet will enable us to defend Taiwan. 7/7

— Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) March 29, 2022

You have issues when combat readiness is so poor that a liberal Democrat can’t help but notice it.

What’s worse than @POTUSThe budget proposes to only build nine Navy warships while retiring 24. The new ship doubles the number of a previously authorized vessel by Congress. Doing so is illegal.

— Sen. Jim Inhofe (@JimInhofe) March 28, 2022

Commander of the Pacific Fleet says that the fleet is at its maximum stress. As my long-time acquaintance “cdrsalamander” points out, we are at peace. How would you react if there were to be shooting?

…and there you go.

“Our force is at the top end of the stress curve.”

This is not an accusation, but a point of pride.

If our Navy – presently at peace – is operating at “the top of the stress curve” then we are doing it wrong.

Sea power stewardship is an ongoing marathon. https://t.co/G1xmuBwuhM

— cdrsalamander (@cdrsalamander) April 5, 2022

To ensure that the proper melanin and gender levels are present in all places, the service created a Diversity, Inclusion and Equity office at the Pentagon. In the Army and Marines, women are being forced into combat arms. They were put there not because of manpower (yes, I said it) shortages but because some hyper woke general officers decided they didn’t care about combat effectiveness or young men and women needlessly dying as much as they cared about being woke. We were made to believe that women could meet the same standards for a job as men. It isn’t true. This was not true.

One of Gaetz’s most powerful statements was in his closing, “You totally blew those calls [about Afghanistan and Ukraine],” he said, “and maybe we’d be better at them if the National Defense University worked a little more on strategy and a little less on wokeism.

Indeed.

No evidence has been found that graduates from our military senior colleges are more competent in directing national military strategy than those who have completed a typical undergraduate gender studies program. This is because both programs share the same focus. Is there a single strategy that was ever developed for the success of the Afghan mission? I’ll take it a step further, was there ever a mission for Afghanistan that could produce anything recognizable as a win.

While the US army entered the final half century of the 20thcentury with an unbroken streak of wins, it has been difficult to win the remaining 70 years. The wars your average Infantry major can plan are where we’ve been the most successful (Panama, Grenada). Dismal failures have occurred in conflicts that required an overall strategy. That is because we have raised a generation of general officers, including field commanders, who don’t see strategic acumen or tactical proficiency as part of their job description. They are instead resource managers and career seekers.

And yet, the Secretary of Defense comes before Congress asking for more money than the GDP of Poland to defend this nation, and he can’t explain why a French socialist is giving a lecture at the National Defense University on how to use a “new emancipatory and egalitarian horizon on a global scale, a new form of democratic and participatory, ecological and postcolonial socialism,” to defeat Communist China. He definitely can’t explain what the military services are doing to train the warriors of all ranks who will have to do the job.

Transcript

Gaetz. Secretary Austin: Why would American taxpayers finance lectures at National Defense University that promote Socialism as a Strategy to Combat China?

Austin: The National Defense University is an academic institution and I don’t know of any such lecture…

Gaetz: That’s surprising because it was widely reported. The National Defense University had Thomas Piketty come and this was the title of his lecture “Responding to China: The Cae for Global Justice and Democratic Socialism. Now that you are aware of what they did, do you think that adopting socialism to fight China is a poor strategy?

Austin: I certainly don’t agree with embracing socialism.

Gaetz: So that means…

Committee chairman white knighting for Austin: I’m sorry, we’re not going to do this. We’re not going to let the guy talk, say four words, and then cut him off. We’re not…

Gaetz: You control the time Mr. Chairman.

White Knight: You have to show fairness to your witness.

Gaetz, I received the information I was looking for. A follow-up is planned. My follow up question is, if we don’t embrace it, then why did the National Defense University put out a statement, again, this is funded by US taxpayers, saying, “In this talk, Mr. Piketty will argue that the right answer lies in ending Western arrogance and promoting a new emancipatory and egalitarian horizon on a global scale, a new form of democratic and participatory, ecological and postcolonial socialism.” Why would we invite people we don’t agree with to evangelize views and values that we don’t share at the National Defense University when we should be learning strategy about how to combat our enemies and make assessments that are accurate.

Austin: There is a lot we learn about military strategy, joint force development and the military. So, this is what we focus on in these institutions. I don’t know what the context of this particular…or the content of this particular….

Gaetz: Mr. Secretary, I’ve shared with you the context. The context wasn’t let’s better understand socialism so we can defeat it. The context wasn’t learn about it, so we can offer countermeasures. The concept was that it’s time for socialism. And the reason I know that’s the context is because the lecture was pulled from a book written by Thomas Piketty entitled “Time for Socialism.” And I just can’t help but like notice that you guys have been…

Austin: And your point to me was whether…

Gaetz: The time is mine.

Austin: This is your question [something] socialism…

Gaetz: You guys have been blowing a lot of calls lately…

Austin: …the answer is no…

Gaetz: …on matters of strategy, Mr. Secretary. You told us that Russia couldn’t lose. You told us that the Taliban couldn’t immediately win. So I guess I’m wondering what in the $773 billion you’re requesting today is going to help make assessments that are accurate in the face of so many blown calls?

Austin: You’ve seen what’s in the budget. You’ve seen how the budget matches strategy. And so I’ll let that speak for itself.

Gaetz: Well, I’ve also seen we’re behind, Mr. Secretary. We’re behind in hypersonic, we failed to deter Russia. Last year…

Austin: What do you mean we’re behind in hypersonic? How do you…

Gaetz: Okay? Who’s ahead in hypersonics?

Austin: So, how do you assess Austin?

Gaetz: I don’t know…I make that assessment because China is fielding hypersonic weapons, and we are still developing them. I make that assessment because Russia…

[cross talk]

Gaetz, by the way your people inform us that China is leading and we are still behind. Do you know what briefings are given on hyprsonics to your staff?

Austin: Yes, I’m aware of the briefings that we give to Congress.

Gaetz says it’s not only hypersonics that are at work; it can also be seen all over the globe. It’s in Taiwan, where last year China flew more sorties than ever before. It’s North Korea on pace to shatter prior records for the number of missiles that they are testing. Everyone else in the world seem to be developing more capabilities and being more strategic; we’ve got time to embrace Critical Race Theory at West Point, to embrace socialism at the National Defense University, to do mandatory pronoun training. Do you assess…

Austin: This is again the strongest, most credible, and most capable force anywhere in the world. It was, it is and will remain so.

Gaetz says: This is not the right path. Not if we embrace socialism.

Austin: The fact that you’re embarrassed by your country…

Gaetz: No, no, no, I’m embarrassed by your leadership. I’m not embarrassed for my country. It would be a shame if we lost to China. I wish we were not losing… You know what, that’s, that is so disgraceful that you’d here and conflate your failures with the failures of the uniformed service members. According to you, Russia will overthrow Ukraine within 36 days. Your prediction that the Taliban would not be allowed to enter Ukraine for several months was false. You totally blew those calls, and maybe we’d be better at them if the National Defense University worked a little more on strategy and a little less on wokeism.

Austin: Has it occurred to you that Russia has not overrun Ukraine because what we’ve done and our allies have done?

Gaetz: This was part of your incorrect assessment. The Obama administration attempted to kill our military, starving it of its resources. It seems like the Biden administration wants to destroy our army by forcing it to eat wokeism.