Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley claimed accusations that the U.S. military has become woke are “grossly overexaggerated” during a recent CNN interview.
The military leader, who once famously claimed he had been studying critical race theory and concepts of “white rage,” stressed to the news network that the U.S. armed forces have continued to be focused on “readiness,” especially in light of Russia’s war in Ukraine, and potential conflict with China.
He insisted that the military has not been preoccupied with instilling progressive values in its personnel.
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He also talked about the growing tensions between the U.S. and China, claiming he believes that though the U.S. is “arguably in a confrontation” with China, it’s not inevitable that there will be a conflict between the two superpowers.
“I personally don’t think that war between China and the United States is inevitable, I don’t think it’s imminent, but it needs to stay in a status of competition,” he said, adding, “in order to do that, countries have to talk to each other.”
In the end, he stressed that the U.S. was prioritizing “readiness” against these threats and not prioritizing “woke” indoctrination of its soldiers as many critics have suggested.
However, at the time, he slammed critics for pointing to his statements as evidence of wokeness in the military, saying, “I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned, non-commissioned officers of being, quote, ‘woke’ or something else, because we’re studying some theories that are out there.”
More recently, the U.S. Navy using drag queens as official recruiting tools prompted new fears among conservatives that wokeness has propagated within the military.
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