Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Blaine Holt, told Newsmax that woke policies in the military distract from one of its most important jobs – preparedness.
Appearing Monday on "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE," Holt explained the dangers of compromising military standards for diversity, equity, and inclusion alongside retired U.S. Army Reserve Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer.
"They shifted their focus away from the mission," Holt, the former deputy U.S. military representative to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, lamented about the state of the country's armed forces.
"The mission is about being physically fit to carry out the mission," he continued. However, "right now, we're struggling with pronouns, pronoun recognition, diversity, inclusivity."
Holt believes that the situation encourages commanders to focus on woke issues "if they want to get promoted," creating an "insane nepotistic system."
"It's not about bombs on target. It's not about bad guys killed. It's about, 'How do you feel about things?'" Holt argued. "And that's got to go away because these are the people that are supposed to help us sleep well at night."
Shaffer, who spent 28 years in the military as an intelligence officer, concurred with Holt and put much of the blame on the recent leadership, specifically those following in the steps of Retired Army Gen. Mark Milley.
"Unfortunately, that failure in leadership has permeated leadership all the way down. And frankly, it's not just the Army. It's all services," Schaffer emphasized.
The pair's comments come in response to a new study conducted by the American Security Project that found that nearly 70% of American soldiers were obese or overweight under the Body Mass Index.
It also determined that the number of troops in the "obese" category more than doubled over the past decade, going from 10.4% in 2012 to 21.6% last year.
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Luca Cacciatore ✉
Luca Cacciatore, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is based in Arlington, Virginia, reporting on news and politics.
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