An Army commander is under not-so-friendly rhetorical fire from troops outraged at comments the officer reportedly made denigrating white men as a class. The episode has prompted a formal investigation and reinvigorated a debate over whether the Biden administration is imposing a leftist agenda on the military.
Social media pages for a Soldiers’ network reported the comments in Tuesday posts on Instagram and Facebook. The posts alleged Lt. Col. Andrew Rhodes, a new battalion commander at Fort Carson, Colo., told his troops: “If you’re a white male, you are part of the problem.”
The comments were published by @terminalcwo, whose social media accounts feature military humor and posts about situations within the military.
Just the News was not able to reach Lt. Col. Rhodes, who this week took command of the 1-8 Infantry “Fighting Eagles” at Fort Carson. Rhodes remained in command as of Thursday, when he attended a ceremony at Fort Carson.
Officials at the fort acknowledged Friday they have launched a preliminary probe.
“The command is aware of an event involving one of our battalion commanders, we are conducting a preliminary inquiry to gather more information,” Fort Carson spokesman Amber Martin wrote in an email to Just the News. “It would be inappropriate to provide any further details in order to protect the integrity of the inquiry.”
The posts on social media were first posted June 8.
“Looks like Fort Carson got themselves a real gem of an unbiased commander,” wrote an @terminalcwo webmaster. “I hope you’re not white or ever accused of anything while you’re in his command. You’re already guilty, and you didn’t even know it!”
The posts included screen shots of texts from a Soldier who wrote: “He said that anyone who wasn’t a white male would be afraid to call out something that made them uncomfortable and rambled about how if you don’t like how woke the Army is getting then get the f— out of it.”
These and other alleged comments attributed to Rhodes brought swift reaction from active-duty troops, and veterans.
“Rhodes basically condemned over half the military and risks doing serious damage to troop morale, if the reports are true,” said Jason Beardsley, National Director of the Association of the United States Navy. “Army leadership should do everything possible to protect Soldiers from this cancerous behavior, and it does appear to be taking the right steps.”
Privately, Soldiers at Fort Carson said they found the comments to be both disturbing and enlightening.
“He assumes that white males are always in the wrong,” one black enlisted man told Just the News. “He made that loud and clear. We know who he is, and he is divisive. It’s bad for morale, but at least we know that up front.”
“This commander showed us his bias,” a white enlisted woman said. “I would not want to serve in his unit. I’d tell them straight up. I do not trust my commander.”
Social media users scoured through cached copies of a now-deleted Twitter account alleged to have belonged to Rhodes. Screen shots of tweets from the account provided fodder for mockery. One social media user, @donjohnnyyy, wrote: “Those tweets make as much sense as a Biden interview.” Another, @douglarfresh, commented: “Stunning and brave. So woke.”
……The controversy comes amid increasing charges that Biden and his defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, have pushed the Department of Defense (DOD) to impose a leftist agenda on the force.
“DOD’s decision to promote so-called woke ideals over combat readiness and morale only encourages this divisive behavior when we should be focused on winning wars,” said Beardsley, who served in the Navy and then as an Army Green Beret.
Lloyd Austin was grilled by Sen.Tom Cotton over the policy of racial hatred towards white servicemembers:
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was grilled by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Thursday over a so-called ‘woke’ military.
“Do you believe that any member of the military should be treated differently based on their skin color and sex? Again yes or no will do,” Cotton asked during the hearing. “No, I do not believe that and that is why we have diversity equity and inclusion focus in the military,” Austin responded.
Apparently, he does, because there have been numerous complaints about the lack of inclusion of military personnel who don’t fit the ethnic standards of “woke” policies:
The Arkansas senator and former Army infantry officer said he and Congressman Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, a former Navy SEAL, had received “several hundred” messages from irate service members complaining the Pentagon’s ‘extremism and diversity’ training is dividing the forces and taking time away from critical training for war.
“One Marine told us that a military history training session was replaced with mandatory training on police brutality, White privilege and systemic racism,” Cotton said, adding that several officers from that Marine Corps unit “are now leaving” the military as a result of the training.
“A member of the Special Operations community has told us that they are being instructed that, ‘The U.S. special operations community is racist,’” Cotton added.
……Congressman Michael Waltz, R-Fla., the only Green Beret ever elected to Congress, recently wrote the superintendent of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point asking why critical race theory was being taught to future Army officers.
“We aren’t demanding oversight of ‘diversity training,’ Waltz said in a tweet in response to a New York Times article. “We are demanding that divisive seminars like ‘How to Deal with Your White Rage’ to our future military leaders not continue.”
This isn’t about ‘cultural wars.’ This is about keeping our military merit-based & mission focused.”
“The only color that matters on the battlefield is the flag on your uniform because that’s all our enemies are concerned with,” Waltz added “Our military should be open to all Americans and only worried about standards needed to win wars.”
Rhodes should be relieved of duty. Under Dems regimes, there’s always a double standard. The Commander of the newly-formed Space Force was fired for warning about the rampant cultural Marxism in the military. Ironically, the CRT Marxists proved him right.
While the Biden regime has the Pentagon pushing the “woke” shit instead of focusing on combat readiness, our enemies are laughing their asses off. According to the White House hijacker, servicemembers are just a discharge away from being “white supremacists”. Soldiers are subjected to “white privilege” briefings and watching their Commanders kiss muzzie ass over “disrespect to the Quran”. A DOD employee sent out an email declaring MAGA to be “white supremacy” and an Army Lieutenant Colonel at Ft. Campbell sent out an email accusing Christians and patriots of being “hate groups”.
This shit started during the Obama regime when Janet Napolitano developed an Enemies List (AKA: Homeland Security Department document entitled “Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Environment Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment”) which contained a section titled, “Disgruntled Military Veterans”. She also added a DHS study that outlined “Hot Spots of Terrorism and Other Crimes in the United States”, that did not include the muslim terrorist threat in the country. It did, however, name the following people as threats: Americans who are “suspicious of centralized federal authority” and Americans who are “reverent of individual liberty”. Go figure.
It didn’t stop there. The desecration of the military was extended to include the Islamic enemy; the hierarchy was more concerned over the feelz of muzzies than fighting them and persecuting Soldiers with Judeo-Christian beliefs.
Instead of honing warfighting skills, West Point cadets are being pummeled with “Critical Race Theory”. One of the instructors forced cadets to call cops “murderers”.
I am SO GLAD I retired in 2006. I can just see myself running afoul of the out-of-control PC Nazis in the military hierarchy.