By Larry Purdy, USNA ’68

Joining Rhode Island Democratic Senator Jack Reed’s partisan handwringing over President Trump’s firing of senior military leaders (see Reed’s Feb. 22 Washington Post op-ed), five former Secretaries of Defense posted an “Open Letter” on Feb. 27 urging Congress to “investigate” Trump’s decisions.

“In the meantime,” they write, “Senators should refuse to confirm any new Defense Department nominations, including that of retired Lt. General Dan Caine as the next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.”

In the present, and increasingly dangerous, international environment, it would be contrary to our national security interests for Congress to take seriously these Trump-hating former officials’ “advice.”

Among the group of five is former Obama SECDEF Leon Panetta.  In case memories are fading, it was Panetta who joined fifty other “intelligence” officials in signing the infamous October 2020 letter suggesting Russia was the manufacturer of the evidence found on Hunter Biden’s laptop.

No one doubts that letter played a key role in the outcome of the controversial 2020 election.  Yet, as we have since learned, this pre-2020 election missive was pure propaganda.  It was also demonstrably false.

Moreover, it is all-but-inconceivable that Panetta, who had earlier served as President Obama’s CIA Director, was unaware this “claim” was untrue.

Equally false are the former SECDEFs’ recent assertions that:

“President Trump’s actions undermine our all-volunteer force and weaken our national security. Talented Americans may be far less likely to choose a life of military service if they believe they will be held to a political standard. Those currently serving may grow cautious of speaking truth to power or they could erode good order and discipline by taking political actions in uniform. And the public’s traditionally high trust in the armed forces could begin to wither.” 

In fact, what they recite more closely describes precisely what has been occurring over the past four years under the watch of another of the “Open Letter’s” signatories, former Biden SECDEF Lloyd Austin.

The truth is our Nation’s military was being hollowed out under the previous administration.  Recruiting was abysmal and worsening.

Our weapons arsenal — including billions of dollars of equipment left behind following our deadly and humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan — was being needlessly depleted.

Many of our dwindling fleet of Navy ships and our combat aircraft were not “mission ready.”

And in direct violation of George Washington’s advice to Alexander Hamilton in 1783, raw “politics” was being infused throughout the armed services by “woke” DEI and Critical Race Theory ideologues who were destroying our military’s cohesiveness and unity, thus threatening its very purpose.  

Only now, after President Trump ordered the removal of these poisonous programs from our military are we witnessing a much-needed increase of enthusiasm for military service.

The upswing in recruitment numbers don’t lie.

As current Spectator Magazine contributor Michael Gove recently observed:

“It’s self-harming to apply DEI policies to the military. The services are [here] to intimidate and, if that fails, kill our enemies, not impress them with how kind we are to people struggling with their gender identity.”

Regrettably, “self-harming” DEI and CRT policies are what the recently fired military leaders had long been advocating for.

Thus, the former SECDEFs’ criticism of President Trump for dismissing these individuals is not only wrongheaded, but it also represents partisan politics at its very worst.

For the sake of protecting our Nation’s security, Congress should ignore them.

Mr. Purdy is a 1968 graduate of the U. S. Naval Academy,  a veteran of the Vietnam war, and a retired lawyer living today in Minnesota.

First published on Real Clear Defense