Pentagon spox John Kirby dismisses concerns about 'wokeness' in the military: 'ridiculous'

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“So we know, those kinds of arguments, I think, are ridiculous,” Kirby added, “because we are a stronger military because of our diversity and because we represent all Americans, just like we defend all Americans.”

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, right, and Army Maj. Gen. William "Hank" Taylor, left, listen to questions during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, right, and Army Maj. Gen. William "Hank" Taylor, left, listen to questions during a briefing at the Pentagon in Washington, Saturday, Aug. 28, 2021.
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., a military veteran, raised concerns about “plummeting morale, growing mistrust between the races and the sexes where none existed just six months ago, and unexpected separations and retirements based on trainings alone” in a letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin last June. He claimed that many whistleblowers had lodged complaints about “Pentagon extremist and diversity training.”

“One Marine told us that military history training session was replaced with mandatory training on police brutality, white privilege, and systemic racism. He reported that several officers are now leaving his unit citing that training,” the senator reported.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations on Capitol Hill on September 28, 2021, in Washington, DC.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) speaks during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the conclusion of military operations in Afghanistan and plans for future counterterrorism operations on Capitol Hill on September 28, 2021, in Washington, DC.
(Patrick Semansky)

The Pentagon has denied any embrace of critical-race-theory” target=”_blank”>critical race theory< decision to authorize – but not require – the use of gender pronouns in electronic signature boxes for communications within the department.

“The Pentagon has been infected with wokeism the same way so many other institutions have,” Fox News host Pete Hegseth, who served as a U.S. Army platoon leader, told Fox News Digital last month. Hegseth said that under the barack-obama” target=”_blank”>Obama<

“The military has a very specific and strategic job, and that’s to keep our country safe,” Former Army Ranger and founder of the Warrior Poet Society, John Lovell, told Fox News Digital. “And when you thrust them in to be the front line of a sociological experiment which has a pernicious ideology that makes people hate the United States, a soldier can very quickly start to despise the very thing he’s supposed to be protecting.”

Fox anchor Pete Hegseth interviews entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel during "FOX &amp; Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios on August 09, 2019, in New York City.

Fox anchor Pete Hegseth interviews entrepreneur and venture capitalist Peter Thiel during "FOX &amp; Friends" at Fox News Channel Studios on August 09, 2019, in New York City.
(John Lamparski)

Fox News’ Jeff Field contributed to this report.

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