Marine Corps Account Says It ‘Messed Up’ in Response to Fox’s Carlson ...

[IceWizard]

Fox News host Tucker Carlson speaks in Washington
on March 29, 2019.
(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)






Marine Corps Account Says It ‘Messed Up’
in Response to Fox’s Carlson


BY ZACHARY STIEBER
March 14, 2021
Updated: March 14, 2021


A U.S. Marine Corps unit’s Twitter account says it “messed up” in its comments
while responding to Fox News host Tucker Carlson as part of a debate over his
commentary about U.S. servicewomen.

The official account for the II Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group used
a pejorative on social media in responding to Carlson’s recent statements on how
the military should be focused more on adversaries and less on culture issues.

The Marines shared a picture of a female soldier carrying a male one and tagged
Carlson, writing that the photo showed “what it looks like in today’s armed forces.”

“Get right before you get left, boomer,” the account said, using a word widely
considered a pejorative term.

After intense pushback for using an official military account to slam a private citizen,
the Marines unit said: “We are human and we messed up. What was intended as a
tweet in support of our female Marines and sisters serving in uniform was clearly not
aligned with our standard practices or an appropriate representation of the Marine Corps.
We will do better and serve the people.”

“We can do better and we will collectively take a knee, review our procedures and
get back in the fight. Our focus is to train, fight and win and we have a hard time
doing that without your support,” the Marines’ account added in another tweet.

The Department of Defense inspector general didn’t immediately respond to a
request for comment.

The situation was the latest development in an ongoing clash between Carlson and
the military, with some of the force’s highest officials lambasting the Fox News host
for his views.

Carlson on March 9 on his show played comments from President Joe Biden, who
has made elevating women in the military a priority in recent weeks.

In remarks on International Women’s Day the day prior at the White House,
Biden highlighted how he’d nominated two women for four-star command
positions in the armed forces. The nominations will underscore to young
women just beginning their careers in the military that “no door will be closed
to them,” Biden said.

Military leaders realize “there’s much, much more work to be done to ensure
that women’s leadership is recognized and we have more diverse leaders”
and that “all women feel safe and respected in our military,” Biden said.
“Some of it is relatively straightforward work where we’re making good
progress designing body armor that fits women properly; tailoring combat
uniforms for women; creating maternity flight suits; updating—updating
requirements for their hairstyles.”





A U.S. Army soldier prepares to immunize a man with a
COVID-19 vaccine in North Miami, Fla., on March 9, 2021.
(Joe Raedle/Getty Images)



Carlson then told viewers: “So we’ve got new hairstyles and maternity flight suits.
Pregnant women are going to fight our wars. It’s a mockery of the U.S. Military.
While China’s military becomes more masculine as it’s assembled the world’s
largest navy, our military needs to become, as Joe Biden says, more feminine,
whatever feminine means anymore since men and women no longer exist. The
bottom line is it’s out of control, and the Pentagon is going along with this.”

The segment drew criticism from Pentagon press secretary John Kirby, who told
reporters that “the diversity of our military is one of our greatest strengths.

“We are better and more effective not only when we represent the American
people—all the American people—but also, when we have the moral courage to
include other perspectives and ideas into our decision-making; perspectives
that, as the secretary himself noted Monday, are based on lived experience.
It’s that experience, and the professionalism and commitment of our people,
that has always been our decisive advantage,” he said, adding that the U.S.
armed forces need to work on making the military more inclusive.

“We pledge to do better, and we will. What we absolutely won’t do is take
personnel advice from a talk show host or the Chinese military. Now maybe
those folks feel like they have something to prove; that’s on them. We know
we’re the greatest military in the world today, and even for all the things
we need to improve, we know exactly why that’s so,” he said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “shares the revulsion of so many others to
what Mr. Carlson said in his opening statement,” according to the press secretary.

In addition, the Space Force Command’s senior enlisted leader, Marine Corps
Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott Stalker, said in a video while in uniform that Carlson’s
opinion is “based on zero days of service in the armed forces.”
Army Sgt. Major Michael Grinston was among other officers criticizing Carlson.

Carlson on March 11 said the Pentagon had effectively “declare[d] war on a
domestic news operation.”

He also amped up his critique of what he described as the military’s focus on
identity politics, noting that Biden recently announced the Pentagon would pay
for gender reassignment surgery for active-duty personnel.

“How do sex changes in the military make this country safer?
That’s not a trick question. It’s not another volley in the culture war. It’s the
only question that matters—literally, the only question that matters.
But no one bothered to ask it, probably because no one can remember
why the U.S. military exists,” Carlson said.

“Here’s a reminder:
the US military exists to fight and win wars. That’s its only purpose.
The U.S. military is not an NGO.
It is not a vehicle for achieving ‘equity.’
It’s not a social experiment.
It’s definitely not an employment agency.
Nobody has a God-given right to work in the military.
No one does, and that includes all of us.”