Lt Gen ROBERT D. “ROD” BISHOP
Memo to the Senate: Stop the Marxist Takedown of Our Military! The U.S. Senate must reject Marxist leaders for the U.S. Military Services
Lt Gen ROBERT D. “ROD” BISHOP
U.S. Air Force (Ret.), Chairman of STARRS (Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services)
Well, thank you so much, Frank, for hosting this very important seminar webinar. As you indicate, we've been at this a pretty long time now over three years. And when we first started down this road, I was loathed to call out the leadership in our military. I would start the podcast or TV radio shows with, you know, these folks are my former wingmen, my battle buddies. But somewhere over this last three years, somewhere along the line, it became very clear that they're not listening. A hundred plus interviews. And we see either that they've just completely put us on ignore, they actually believe in this stuff, or we're told things like, well, we're teaching critical race theory. So, cadets, for example, see both sides of the story, or we're not teaching cadets what to think. We're teaching them how to think.
Well, I'm sorry. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you're teaching about communism, you'd think you'd mention Lenin. Stalin? If you're teaching about critical race theory, I think you would mention the Frankfurt School, Herbert Marcuse to Derrick Bell, etcetera. But I have not come across one cadet, and I've asked dozens who knows what the Frankfurt School or Herbert Marcuse is. So, I've got three important messages for our senators that I'll get to. But I just want to set this in a little bit more context. Um, no, we are not teaching critical race theory. We're indoctrinating our military in the tenets, the Marxist tenets.
You know, we have slides that say, don't be colorblind. We have closed door sessions where cadets are not allowed to take notes or pictures of slides that say there are multiple genders. That's not teaching cadets how to think. That is teaching cadets and our military members what to think. And it's also in direct conflict with the number one criterion for a successful military op is a number of speakers have indicated before unity, cohesiveness. As one cadet put it to me, this is nothing but identity politics on steroids. Another cadet that I've known for ten years now, he's like my son says, the culture is changing underneath my feet.
So, what do you do when you're put on ‘ignore’ or you and you see the military that you love and you served weakened internally just like Abraham Lincoln kind of forecast? Well, you look for other ways to get the message across.
I would hope we could all agree that we want a military based on merit and performance, not color of skin…Promotions assignments should be based on merit and performance.
So, we've engaged in all those media events I've mentioned. We've engaged extensively with Congress. We've built some great teammates, a number of whom are on this venue with us. But we've also urged the leadership, okay, you don't want to listen to us, then listen to the people that we've entrusted to your care. And please, trust and confidence should go up and down the chain of command. Just listen to them. Well, there's not much evidence that they're listening to them either. If they were, they'd hear things like, well, this isn't working.
This is just an overemphasis on an immutable, characteristic, immutable body trait. They would hear things like, If I hear leaders of diversity one more time, I'm going to throw up. They would hear, well, we just keep our heads down and we push through this. We don't like this indoctrination. They would hear I do everything I can to get out of this training. They would hear there is not one pilot in my wing, not squadron in my entire wing that's staying one second past their commitment date. They would hear from minority cadets, If I thought I'm here because of my color of my skin, I would just be so upset. That would be so demeaning. They would hear from another minority cadet. The majority of us see what's going on here as wrong. We just don't have the courage yet to speak up. Or you'd hear from people on active duty like this retired colonel friend I know that just got a job working in Ops in the Pentagon. He tells me. Yeah. Been here two months. I've seen three D briefs and I'm in ops and I haven't seen one on readiness yet. So there's so many examples I could share with everyone. Don't take it from me. Go to our website STARRS.us. And on the first page there's two links boots on the ground and another link that's now today, 104 pages, giving examples from people in the military of why recruiting and retention is in the tank.
So here's my message to the senators. If you would please step back and understand. The roots of what is being taught, the roots, the history, the lineage and intent of critical race theory and DEI has been shared already. They are all rooted in Marxism. So, unless you want to continue to see recruiting and retention remain in the tank. Please, please use the powers entrusted to you by our Constitution and Article one, section and eight and do just what? That we see happening in the corporate world and schools, schools across our country. Stop it. Just stop it.
Understand that all this emphasis on diversity in our military is just nothing but misdirection. The military is already the most diverse organization in our country. Professionalism. It's a profession that thrives on unity and cohesiveness. It's not emphasis on diversity and differences that are going to make our military stronger. So please use this time that Senator Tuberville has given with his hold to take a closer look at these candidates being brought up for nomination.
You would think a military leader that is either wanting to be a flag officer or wants to be a higher rank in the flag officer ranks would know something about the roots, history, lineage and intent of critical race theory and DEI. They would have to see the negative impact that it's having upon the force.
They should realize and please, Senators, please realize that this is not just a political issue. This is a cultural issue.
So, if you are in line with this culture, then hopefully you could realize that most Americans want a military—and our nation deserves a military—that is led by the very best, not just qualified officers.
So, there are really good provisions, as Elaine Donnelly mentioned, in the NDAA, particularly the House version. But if you have to, for political reasons, put politics ahead of what's best for our country and what's best of our military.
Again, I would hope we could all agree that we want a military based on merit and performance, not color of skin.
And there's three particular provisions, two of which are already in the Senate bill that I would urge senators to support. There's a number of amendments which will increase the quality of candidates and the numbers of candidates being nominated to our academies. There is a provision there that will stand to make standardized test scores mandatory, and there is a provision that that will make a requirement for merit-based treatment across the military.
Promotions assignments should be based on merit and performance.
So, you put that all together. And I would just say there's a huge, huge difference in outreach to the underrepresented groups in our communities. And outwardly and illegally discriminating. In our military. So please, senators, please do some homework.