Photo Source: The Federalist
                    "There is no greater danger to the country than this effort to politicize the military by ensuring that all officers hew to the political party line of this administration."  - TheFederalist
                     
                    Article by John Lucas, The Federalist, September 10. 2021 
                   
                  “President Joe Biden and his administration  are continuing to purge and politicize the American military. Consistent with  the totalitarian left’s effort to control curricula down to the grade-school  level, their latest effort targets the education of America’s future military  leaders at the service academies: 
                  
                      The U. S. Military Academy at West Point, the  Naval Academy at Annapolis, and the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
                  
                  This is not happening by accident. And there  is no greater danger to the country than this effort to politicize the military  by ensuring that all officers hew to the political party line of this  administration.
                  Each of the service academies is overseen by a bipartisan 'Board of Visitors,'  comprised of accomplished members of Congress, retired military personnel, and  distinguished civilians. By federal statute, these  Boards of Visitors are charged with a duty to 'inquire into the morale and  discipline, the curriculum, instruction, physical equipment, fiscal affairs,  academic methods, and other matters relating to the Academy.'  
                  The members visit the academies regularly and by law are required to submit an annual 'written report  to the President of its action, and of its views and recommendations pertaining  to the Academy.'
                  On January 30, less  than two weeks after President Biden’s inauguration, Secretary of Defense Lloyd  Austin announced he was  suspending the Boards of Visitors for West Point, the Air Force Academy, and  the Naval Academy, along with those of 39 other DOD advisory boards. 
                  This  suspension of operations was to take place “immediately,” pending completion of  what Austin called a 'Zero-Based Review' of the boards. This was to include  recommendations of 'changes to mission or functions, membership balance, [and]  membership size.'
                  Although the service academies’ Boards of  Visitors’ operations were suspended, their membership was retained, at least  temporarily. Austin could not fire the members of their boards because they are  appointed, by statute, by congressional leadership and the president. That  purge would have to come later, as it now has.
                  Austin ordered that  the review of service academies’ boards was to be completed by April 30. This  has yet to occur. However, on August 27, Susan Gough, a Pentagon 'Strategic  Planner & Spokesperson,' announced: 
                  
                      'Largely,  the zero-based review committee-level work has been completed, and Secretary  Austin is examining the recommendations to determine how he wants to move  forward…. We don’t have any specific announcements to make at this time, but we  should be able to communicate in more detail soon about what boards are going  to be reconstituted and how they’re going to be both chaired and  populated” (emphasis added).
                  
                  The next shoe dropped on Sept. 8, when the White House purported  to fire the service academies board members appointed by President Trump. 
                  Notwithstanding Biden’s self-professed policy of unity and 'bringing the nation  together,' this unprecedented action was calculated to be as insulting as  possible.
                  Biden’s director of  the Office of White House Personnel, Catherine Russell, sent letters to  all the president-appointed members requesting their resignations that same day  with a caveat that they would be terminated if they did not resign voluntarily  by 6:00 p.m. 
                  She did not include any recognition of their past service, just a  perfunctory 'thank you' for their demanded resignation. Nor did she give any  reason for the firings, or mention that each member had been appointed for a  three-year term.
                  This message came from the top. Russell is not  some third-tier millennial who is freelancing policy decisions without the president’s  knowledge and approval. She is a senior, experienced Democrat political  operative who is a 'longtime  adviser to both Vice President Biden and his wife Dr. Jill Biden.'
                  Among other things, she is a former chief of  staff to Jill Biden, an 'ambassador-at-large for Global Women’s Issues,' and is  married to President Obama’s National Security Advisor Tom Donilon. 
                  Her brother-in-law is Mike Donilon, a lawyer and political consultant who was the  chief strategist of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign and now serves as a  'chief advisor' to Biden. These are top-level, plugged-in people who are part  of the policy-making core group of political operatives running this show.
                  Another 'Special Assistant to the President,'  a thirty-somethingish Katie Petrelius, added (more) insult to injury in an  email, curtly informing the  distinguished members like Gens. Jack Keane and H. R. McMaster, Rep. Sean  Spicer, and others that, 
                  
                      'If we do not receive your resignation by end of day  today, you will be terminated.'
                  
                  Russell’s and Petrelius’s heavy-handed and dangerous effort to  eradicate independent and diverse viewpoints are clearly part of a coordinated  strategy. It fulfills the Pentagon’s promise 'to communicate in more detail'  about how the boards will be 'reconstituted and how they’re going to be both  chaired and populated.'
                  As of this writing,  the administration and its allies in the press have not yet coordinated their  defense of this political purge. The first weak effort was Jen Psaki’s in her  Sept. 8 press briefing. 
                  She gave the game away when she defended the  firings, saying among other absurdities, that 'the president’s qualification  requirements are …. whether you’re aligned with the values of this administration.'
                  
                    Think about that: Those overseeing the  education of our future military leaders must align themselves with Joe Biden’s  thinking and values. Scary thought.
                  
                  These lefties are saying retired vice chief of staff and four-star general  Keane, West Point distinguished graduate and three-star general McMaster, and  Spicer, however competent they may be, are not fit to serve this country  overseeing the military service academies because they are too diverse—they may  not be 'aligned with the values of this administration.'
                  What an utter disgrace.  And a dangerous one.
                  The American people need to fully understand  how dangerous a precedent this administration is setting for the country. It is  not just part of the continuing Biden purge of anything Trump touched, although  it is that. 
                  It is part of the political left’s relentless drive to force  political conformity in thought, word, and deed on all segments of society,  including the military.
                  
                      It is also an attempt to overthrow the  fundamental military ethos and tradition of being apolitical. 
                  
                  The military has  always had a long and valued tradition of being apolitical. In all this  writer’s years of active service, all of which were during the Vietnam War, I  never heard an officer criticize any president or push any political position.
                  Most officers and  non-commissioned officers take pride in that. Their sworn loyalty is to the  Constitution, not to any particular president or administration. This ethos and  tradition also have the force of law. 
                  They are enshrined in Article 88 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. It is  commanded by law for good reason: A politicized military would pose an  existential danger to our constitutional order.
                  The apolitical nature of the military, along  with its competence, is one of our country’s crown jewels. It is a priceless  tradition.
                  It is priceless because its elimination for a  standard by which those overseeing the education of our future military officers  must agree with 'the values of this administration' would inevitably fully  politicize the U.S. military (a process many fear is already underway). 
                  There  is no greater danger to both the safety and the freedom of the American people."
                
                    Photo by Mike Strasser, West Point Public Affairs.