by Ryan Bort
June 23, 2021
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/p ... s-1188508/
Extract:
This article is slightly dated, but I wanted to note the general's remarks. In addition to Rolling Stone, MSNBC made a point of replaying Milley's remarks several times and commenting upon their importance. They especially focused on the idea put forward on the importance of having an open mind.(Rolling Stone) Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley delivered a powerful defense of the military’s right to study critical race theory while speaking before Congress on Wednesday.
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Here are his remarks in full:
“I do think it’s important for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read. The United States Military Academy is a university. It is important that we train and we understand. I want to understand white rage — and I’m white. What is it that caused thousands of people to assault this building and try to overturn the Constitution of the United States of America? What caused that? I want to find that out. I want to maintain an open mind. I do want to analyze it. It’s important that we understand it. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, and guardians — they come from the American people. It’s important that the leaders, now and in the future, understand it. I’ve read Mao Zedong. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist. So what is wrong with having some situational understanding about the country we are here to defend? I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military — our general officers, our commissioned and non-commissioned — of being ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there while calling out those who have criticized military officials as “woke” for entertaining the theory based on the idea that systemic racism exists in America. [Critical race theory] was started at Harvard Law School years ago and proposed that there were laws in the United States prior to the Civil War that led to a power differential with African Americans that were three-quarters of a human being when this country was formed. We had a Civil War and an Emancipation Proclamation to change it. We brought it up in the Civil Rights Act. It took another 100 years to change that. I do want to know. I respect your (Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz's) service and we’re both Green Berets, but I want to know. It matters to the discipline and cohesion of this military.”