Retired military general responds to DeSantis’ rollback of ‘woke’ military policies

 People see the military losing its way,

not focusing on the mission

and focusing on a lot of these

other things,

things like die and all that stuff.

It hasn't

worked in other aspects of society.

It very well

may be on the constitutional

chopping block

in light of the Supreme

Court's decision

on on racial discrimination

in higher education.

And so

it's not a model that I think

is going to be successful

in the military.

The I, of course,

a reference

to diversity, equity

and inclusion measures.

That was Republican presidential

candidate and Florida governor

Ron DeSantis outlining

why he unveiled a new plan to eliminate

so-called wokeness from the U.S.

military.

That was during my exclusive interview

with him on the campaign trail

in South Carolina.

The DeSantis

plan for the military includes ending

all groups in positions

in the Pentagon that focus on

diversity, equity and inclusion,

banning transgender service members

from being able to serve as they identify

and ending funding for what

he calls, quote, activist

climate change programs.

DeSantis also wants to reinstate

all service members

who had been removed

for refusing the COVID vaccine.

And he wants to punish retired

generals and admirals

who speak out harshly

against any sitting president, Congress

or other officials

Joining us now to discuss

is the former commanding

general for the US Army,

Europe and Seventh

Army, retired Lieutenant General Mark

Hertling, who's also a CNN

military analyst.

General, thanks so much for joining

us, sir.

DeSantis says

the military is losing its way

by focusing on Dgi

and other what he called

woke initiatives.

Someone with decades,

someone with decades

of military experience.

Who still has contacts

in the in the Pentagon right now.

Do you agree? How do you see it?

I disagree with that completely, Jake.

I'll be honest with you.

I not only have contacts

still with forces,

but I'm a mentor to several organizations

and some in a leadership program.

I work with basic trainees

and their commanders.

I've done some things

with other services,

all with an approach

to how we can be better as a military.

And truthfully, I don't understand what

Governor DeSantis is talking about

in some of these things,

and neither do

most of the people in the military.

This is not an issue that is for

at the forefront of anyone

that I've talked to in the military.

So Governor

DeSantis also wants to punish, prosecute,

former members of the military, high

ranking officials

who engage in harsh politics.

You know,

really tough criticism

of the sitting president, for example.

What do you make of that?

You know what's interesting about it?

I was talking to somebody at the Pentagon

about this proposal,

and he said in his mind was open to it.

But he said,

you know,

the first person

that that would be prosecuted

the worst offender.

All this is Mike Flynn,

Yeah,

it's interesting because

what I've tried to do with CNN, Jake,

and you know, this is comment on policies

or what

the the political leaders are doing.

I've never tried to attack

a sitting political leader.

I'm not defending myself.

But certainly there were times

during the previous administration

and even sometimes

during this administration

where I've said

a policy is something

that is approached

in a different way in the military

than what

a sitting president or

a government official is addressing.

That could be construed as,

you know, taking potshots

at a political figure

trying to inform the American people

about the way the military view things.

I take the four decades

that I've had in the military and say,

hey, here's

how those who are wearing

the cloth of the country

feel about this particular action,

just like we're doing now.

You know,

I don't see any wokeness in our military

I've been honored to serve

since the start of my service

and a very diverse force

serving alongside all races, religions,

cultures, men and women.

One in five of our military force

today of about 2 million are women,

and that's

about 400,000 members of our force.

So some of the things that Governor

DeSantis is talking about,

I think he's disconnected

from what the military actually does.

And what they're made up of.

Is there an argument for

for transgender servicemembers

not being allowed to to serve

as they want to,

as they identify of a trans

woman identifying as a woman?

Is there an argument

in DeSantis favor for that

I don't believe so.

But again,

I have a different view of this.

Our military is an all volunteer force.

It has been that way

since the mid eighties.

It's a very diverse force

and truthfully, it's

the best in the world.

People volunteer to serve men and women.

They swear an oath to our Constitution,

which outlines our values,

our national values,

like dignity and respect for all people.

Sometime

during the history of our military,

we failed in that with races, with women

in some other areas.

So if someone is qualified to serve

and they meet the standards, which I

I heard Governor

DeSantis sort of danced around yesterday,

I personally,

as a member of the military,

believe they should serve

because they contribute

a great deal to the diversity.

And I'll use that word

and the wokeness,

which means you're investigating things

within the military.

I consider myself woke Jake.

I will honestly say that

not only

as a as a soldier,

but as a now citizen of Florida.

I'm woke.

And I still live in Florida

because I like to investigate things

I like to analyze things.

I like to expand my view

of not only how our military works,

but how our enemies and our

our allies work as well.

Well, how would you define woke?

Because as Governor

DeSantis noted yesterday,

even many people

who railed against wokeness

and he certainly is against wokeness

as he defines it.

Don't have a definition.

How would you define it?

Well, I've never heard

him give a definition.

I've heard one of his lawyers

give a definition.

And if the definition of his lawyer

gave is the correct one,

then I'm going to say I'm woke.

It's someone that looks outside.

Their normal field of view

is someone that opens their aperture

to different viewpoints,

to try and analyze things

in maybe a unique way,

to try

and not go along with

common cultural bias, but in fact,

find out more things

about a particular subject.

That's what the military does.

We're not taught what to think.

We are taught how to think,

because that's a very valuable attributes

when you're

when you're talking

about dealing with not only our allies,

but with our enemies,

we have to dig into the view of

different cultures, different people.

You know,

my last

job was

as the commander of forces in Europe.

And, you know, truthfully,

I dealt with 49 other countries

and the culture of those nations

and I had to deal with them

to build alliances for different

things that we were doing,

both in Afghanistan and in the continent.

So I needed to look at other cultures.

I needed to see other people's

points of view.

And to me, that's how I define woke

to try and expand my view

of what other people think

and how they see the world.

Retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling,

thank you so much. Appreciate it.