Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, chastised Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, saying he downplayed the threat from the Chinese government rather than prioritizing military readiness.
Hawley, in an interview on Fox News Thursday night, was asked about the conflicting reports about whether Britain’s Royal Marines easily defeated the U.S. Marines in a duel training exercise. He said China is “probably wondering why it is that people like Gen. Milley and Secretary [Lloyd] Austin spend so much time recommending books on white rage, on critical race theory, and are not more focused on war-fighting.”
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“We’ve got the best soldiers, airmen, Marines in the entire world. Our soldiers are amazing war fighters. Let them fight,” the Missouri senator said. “Train them to fight. Let them do what they do best — and stop using the military as a giant social experiment, which is what the Left seems to want.”
Milley has faced criticism by Republicans for a defiant speech in front of Congress defending teaching recruits about “white rage,” as well as for the more recent tumultuous Afghanistan evacuation.
He also specifically took heat from Hawley for his comments this week about China’s possible military offensive against Taiwan, the island that China considers a part of its country, while the islanders consider themselves independent.
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“Based on my analysis of China, I don’t think that it is likely in the next, near future, being defined you know six, 12, maybe 24 months, that kind of window,” Milley said Wednesday at the Aspen Security Forum.
Hawley, who has already called for the chairman to resign, accused Milley of being “pretty darn casual about the threat from China.”
