After a recent comment made on a podcast, the Space Force has relieved an officer of his command. The said officer was criticizing the diversity and inclusion initiatives the military has recently been encouraging.
Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier has been fired for detailing how radical leftist ideology rooted in Marxism is infiltrating the U.S. military.
“Lt. Gen. Stephen Whiting, Space Operations Command commander, relieved Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier of command of the 11th Space Warning Squadron, Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado, May 14, due to loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead,” Space Force told The Washington Examiner.
“This decision was based on public comments made by Lt. Col. Lohmeier in a recent podcast. Lt. Gen. Whiting has initiated a Command Directed Investigation (CDI) on whether these comments constituted prohibited partisan political activity,” the statement added.
Lohmeier recently appeared on podcasts to promote his book, “Irresistible Revolution: Marxism’s Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military.”
According to The Washington Post, Lohmeier said via email “that he consulted with a military public affairs officer and legal counsel before publishing the book and that he had a team of attorneys read the manuscript.”
Lohmeier said he doesn’t care about the political views of his fellow service members, whether they’re Democrats or Republicans, but he does not want to see institutions politicized. He said new service members are met with a “hyper-politicized work environment” where diversity and inclusion initiatives are “being pushed constantly” with book readings and discussions.
The Pentagon has prioritized combating extremism in the ranks after the January 6 assault on the Capitol. At least 45 current or former military members have been arrested in connection with the riot. The Defense Department is also taking a look at the racial inequality in part because of the disproportionately low number of Black officers, given the large numbers of Black members in the total force.
During his podcast appearances, Lohmeier detailed the Marxist-related issues in the Military, the Examiner reported:
Lohmeier said he was asked to train his troops with extremism training and was given a “70-page” booklet of “talking points.” The lieutenant commander said the booklet opened with the Capitol riot and included examples of “white nationalists that have been caught at some point in the last decade and punished for it and kicked out of the military, or a radical Islamic terrorist.”
“The diversity, inclusion and equity industry and the training we are receiving in the military … is rooted in critical race theory, which is rooted in Marxism,” Lohmeier said. The Space Force lieutenant colonel also criticized spokespeople at the Defense Department for saying the military has “too many white pilots” amid a pilot shortage. Kirby denied making that claim, however, the Air Force has proposed a plan to increase diversity in the ranks of pilots, which includes “recruiting, retaining and removing barriers” for minorities and women to become pilots.
Citing a diversity initiative in which service members read So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo, in which the U.S. is referred to as a “white supremacist nation,” Lohmeier told the Information Operation podcast that the young service members are inundated by a “hyper-politicized work environment where diversity and inclusion initiatives are being pushed constantly.”
Lohmeier added that conservatives in the military who are willing to voice their opinions are painted as “extremists.”
“What you see happening in the U.S. military at the moment is that if you’re a conservative, then you’re lumped into a group of people who are labelled extremists if you’re willing to voice your views. And if you’re aligned with the Left, then it’s OK to be an activist online because no one gonna holds you accountable,” he said.
The controversy may have cost him his post, but it has turned Lohmeier into the newest cause celebre for conservative pundits and Republican lawmakers, including Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Ken Buck (Colo.) and Dan Crenshaw (Tex.).
Gaetz called Lohmeier’s work patriotic and praised him for speaking out against “the attempted wikification of our military.” The Florida lawmaker said he would use his post on the House Armed Services Committee to seek “action” on the disciplinary measure but did not specify what the action would entail.
The fallout also seems to have sold a lot of books. Lohmeier’s 230-pager is the top seller in Amazon’s Military Policy and Communism & Socialism categories. And it’s ranked second overall, behind only Dr Seuss’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” (Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.) As of Sunday evening, it was listed as “temporarily out of stock.”
Watch it here: Youtube/CBS Denver
Sources: WASHINGTON EXAMINER, CBS NEWS, DAILY WIRE