The Chair of the Joint Chiefs, Gen. Mark Milley, made the point the other day that the military should not become embroiled in domestic politics. That has always been a basic principle of the military. Of course, then he’s been doing exactly that, making racist comments about “white rage” and pushing leftist propaganda on the military like CRT.
So it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that this problem in the military doesn’t just apply to him.
Enter Major General Patrick Donahoe, US Army, who is the Commanding General of the Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning. He’s held that position since July of last year.
So maybe as a general officer, he shouldn’t be getting involved in fights on Twitter and becoming embroiled in domestic politics, as Milley said. But that didn’t stop him.
Donahoe was pushing the vaccine from his blue-checked account on Twitter when Josiah Lippincott, a Ph.D. student at Hillsdale who served in the USMC, made a point to him about the problem of suicides in the military because of restrictions and lockdowns.
3 weeks ago. Since then we’ve seen a spike in young trainees in the ICU, spike in trainees arriving positive, and it moves quick in the formation. To get ahead get the shot. Takes five weeks to build the immunity. If you havent done so, do it right now. Delta variant aint playing https://t.co/xtOXNTYuBS
— Patrick Donahoe (@PatDonahoeArmy) July 22, 2021
General, in Q4 of 2020 alone, there were 26 more suicides than in Q4 2019. There have been 26 Covid deaths TOTAL in the DoD.
The lockdowns, liberty restrictions, quarantines, and general disruption of servicemember’s lives is a way bigger killer than the virus. pic.twitter.com/NFFGdDtCEu
— Josiah Lippincott (@jlippincott_) July 23, 2021
Now, he made an important point about the serious issue of suicide in the military in a polite way.
Donahoe’s response back was petulant and false. This is the way an officer of his rank is responding to a serious question.
Your false equivalency of suicide compared to the virus doesn’t hold up. Why don’t you compare auto accidents while you’re at it. Your apparent aversion to the vaccine is wrong headed. It’s the way to normalcy while saving lives. In 1918 people prayed for a vaccine.
— Patrick Donahoe (@PatDonahoeArmy) July 23, 2021
Lippincott hadn’t said anything about the vaccine.
Suicide is an intentional act. Car accidents are not. When policy treats healthy soldiers as biological hazards we shouldn’t be surprised by an increase in suicide and psychological problems.
— Josiah Lippincott (@jlippincott_) July 23, 2021
To which this commanding general made a nasty response.
Hey @Hillsdale come get your boy.
— Patrick Donahoe (@PatDonahoeArmy) July 23, 2021
He followed it up by accusing someone else of being a shill for Putin and encouraging people to shut down any information that they deemed disinformation.
Don’t be a shill for Putin.
— Patrick Donahoe (@PatDonahoeArmy) July 24, 2021
Public Service Announcement. Block and report the trolls and the disinformation tinfoil hat team.
— Patrick Donahoe (@PatDonahoeArmy) July 25, 2021
So he’s joining right in with the political hit agenda of Joe Biden, encouraging the censoring of people for a different political opinion than his. Lippincott wasn’t spreading any misinformation. His “offense” was raising a good point that this general didn’t want to answer. But even had Lippincott been spreading something false, it isn’t the role of the military to be encouraging shutting down political opinion with which they disagree. This is just wrong and conduct unbecoming on top of it. The bottom line was the general had no real response, so he wanted to shut down criticism. Some general. He couldn’t even deal with a battle on Twitter.
This isn’t the first time that Donahoe has gotten involved in high-profile political disputes on Twitter. He was also one of the officers who attacked Tucker Carlson back in March when Carlson criticized the military for being more concerned about being “woke” than about concentrating on the core mission of winning wars. Many of the officers falsely suggested that Carlson was attacking women serving in the military, which was not what he said. But again, why is a general officer getting involved in attacking a journalist on social media?
This is me, yesterday, conducting a re-enlistment for one of the tens of thousands of women who serve in our Army. Just a reminder that @TuckerCarlson couldnt be more wrong. https://t.co/M1MHe5zHrf
— Patrick Donahoe (@PatDonahoeArmy) March 11, 2021
The military really needs to look at where they’re going here because we are in serious trouble if this is what they are concentrated on. Unfortunately, they wouldn’t do any self-reflection with the leadership like this and Grandpa Disaster in charge.
A Major General in the United States Army is calling for people to block and report people for having incorrect opinions.
I assume this includes American citizens, the same citizens protected by the constitution which he has sworn to protect and defend. https://t.co/hFagraqrfy
— Article V Convention of States please (@philthatremains) July 26, 2021
You should focus on winning wars instead of participating in politics. https://t.co/NdcCX2IMhD
— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) July 26, 2021
A serving officer calling to censor political opponents
You are a disgrace to the uniform https://t.co/iDw5oPFjB6
— Jim Hanson (@JimHansonDC) July 26, 2021
WTF. You are a military officer and this is a terrible look. https://t.co/Rs0OS5ecNG
— Jennifer Van Laar (@jenvanlaar) July 26, 2021
Report them for…what exactly?
Which option would you propose we select? https://t.co/kGq7aBHl5x
— Chad Felix Greene 🇮🇱 (@chadfelixg) July 26, 2021
An active duty US General is encouraging the crushing of free speech. https://t.co/yUdJE200cm
— Yossi Gestetner (@YossiGestetner) July 26, 2021
This article was originally published by RedState. Read the original article.
