U.S. Military Leaders Denounce Racism

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Over the past week, U.S. Military leaders publicly denounced racism, hatred, and extremism. While their sentiments toward racism should be assumed, the events in Charlottesville and the president’s lackluster reaction prompted many of them to make public statements via Twitter. Rarely do such leaders in the military make public statements. However, many would suggest that they felt the need to make statements considering the unfortunate weekend in Charlottesville, which claimed the lives of three people.

John Michael Richardson is an Admiral in the United States Navy who currently serves as the 31st Chief of Naval Operations:

Robert Blake Neller is a United States Marine Corps four-star general who currently serves as the 37th Commandant of the Marine Corps:

Mark Alexander Milley is a United States Army officer. A four-star general, he is the 39th Chief of Staff of the Army: 

David Lee Goldfein is a General in the United States Air Force who currently serves as the Air Force Cheif of Staff:

You’ll notice they chose their words carefully and not one of them mentioned Trump or his administration in their tweets. Do you agree with their tweets? If yes, were they strong enough? If no, should they have tried to address their concerns with the president in private, instead of Twitter?

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Trump Bans Transgender People In U.S. Military

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“What the Commander in Chief did yesterday was shameful. Yes, as a servicemember I am openly rebuking the Commander in Chief. An act of bigotry and discrimination is wrong, regardless who it comes from.” 

On July 26, 2017, President Donald Trump issued a ban on all transgender people from serving in the military. Trump is known for his love of banning and placing barriers on groups of people, so this isn’t too shocking. What is shocking is an all-out ban. One of the Obama administration’s last acts regarding military policy was the allowance of transgender people in the military and persons in the military to transition into a gender other than the one they originally entered the military as.

This move done by Trump flies in the face on a couple of fronts. It goes against candidate Donald Trump who in 2016 stated he would be a strong defender of the LGBT community. It also goes against President Trump by allowing a review of transgender recruiting enrollment into the military, which was slated to end in December 2017. Instead, Trump abruptly broke his campaign promise and ended his own administration’s plans.

Until this ban, the U.S. Military for the first time in its history was truly inclusive. Women could finally serve in combat roles, sexual orientation no longer mattered – we had finally arrived. Many will still say this nation has the greatest military representing the most diverse group of people on the planet. If this ruling stands that simply will not be true. To have any reservation of any group of people entering the military not based on universal standards regarding their ability to get the job done is meaningless, shameful, and discriminating.

The main justification Trump used was “tremendous medical costs and disruption,” which could also be applied to a pregnant woman or to any veteran on disability. Just for number’s sake, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are estimated to cost taxpayers nearly a $1 trillion dollars in healthcare costs alone. If nearly $1 trillion dollars spent on healthcare as a result of two wars isn’t a tremendous medical cost and disruption, I don’t know what is. Does this mean we can expect the Trump administration to withdraw military forces worldwide? Close bases stateside? Shrink the military budget to reflect pre-Reagan numbers? This ban just doesn’t make any sense.