Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col Allen West and more than 600 other U.S. military veterans released a joint letter, first shown to American Military News on Monday, denouncing Marxism and socialism in the United States, as well as “wokeness” they say is infiltrating the military.
The letter, organized by West and his Committee to Support and Defend project with the American Constitutional Rights Union (ACRU), states, “As former members of the U.S. military who have proudly served our nation, we write to express our support for Constitutional freedom and liberty and our concern for our country as many powerful forces seek to bring Socialism and Marxism to our land.”
“We oppose the politicization and ideological purging of our military. The focus of our military should be on training, readiness, and defense of our Nation, not leftist cultural ‘wokeness,'” the letter added.
Retired U.S. Marine Maj. Dan Rabil told American Military News the reason he chose to sign the letter was because of what the military has described as an effort to root out extremism, but what he instead sees as a rapidly accelerating effort to push certain political ideologies out of the ranks.
“They’re not looking for Antifa people in the ranks, they’re looking for people who you know are on the right,” Rabil said. “Basically it’s a signal, ‘First of all we’re anti-white, and then secondly we’re anti anybody who votes from the right or has affiliation with anything, you better be careful because we’re going to separate you; we’re going to come after you.'”
Rabil said when he was in the military throughout the 90s, he felt it wasn’t an overtly political experience and a uniting principle was that everyone started on an equal footing and could succeed on merit. “It’s a place and should be a place where everybody can get thrown in, the poor guy from the ghetto and the wealthy guy from not the ghetto, they go through the same training in boot camp and get deployed to the same place.”
Rabil said he’s concerned the effort to politicize the military and to push conservative ideologies out of the military is an effort to recruit a more “malleable, Marxist friendly force.”
Rabil and the other signors’ concerns about the politicization of the military come amid reports, shared by lawmakers, that members of the U.S. military have been told that entire military organizations are “racist” and that service members have been ordered to segregate themselves by race and sex to stratify people based on their perceived privilege.
The letters’ signors say their pledge to serve the country obligates them to protect it from what they view as dangerous ideologies.
“When we agreed to serve our country, we pledged to support and defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” the letter continues. “During our active-duty service, we did just that. Today, although no longer active-duty warriors, we are still bound to this pledge and believe we are ethically obligated to protect our country. As such, we put our nation’s leadership on notice. We believe the hard left turn toward Socialism and Marxism endangers our citizens and the future of this great nation. Although a difficult step to take, we believe this step is necessary for us to continue to demonstrate the integrity and moral courage our oath
requires.”
Another one of the issues listed in the letter is “the dismantling of the rule of law” in the U.S., which the letter describes as a “revolving door for criminals and a two-tiered justice system that offers up different penalties based on the viewpoints of the accused.”
The letter also raised opposition to cooperative U.S. relations with China, stating that China is “currently amassing weapons to stage a takeover of Taiwan. America is bound by the Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty which protects Taiwan from invasion by the People’s Republic of China. Our cooperation with China is at odds with our signed alliances and is not in American self-interest.”
The letter also calls on the U.S. to continue the Abraham Accords, a Middle East peace initiative that began under President Donald Trump.
The letter also described concerns about the integrity of U.S. elections.
“It disturbs us to see the erosion of fair and honest elections. Civilians doubt that our electoral system accurately reflects the will of the people,” the letter states. “Current servicemen and women struggle to find clear instructions on how they can execute their own constitutional right to vote and doubt their ballots will be counted. We reject efforts by those who seek to avoid fair and honest elections by deeming commonsense voting
measures ‘racist.’ The gold standard in voting, recognized throughout the world, is in person, with identification, yet politicians are seeking to end this in the U.S.”
The letter also raised concerns about the Biden administration’s decision to shut down the Keystone Pipeline, the “perforation of our southern border” and a “complicit arrangement between private corporations and those in power” to censor certain views and “present only one point of view.”
