Mr. Austin was in the Capitol on Tuesday to testify at the House Armed Services Committee on the Department of Defense’s request for fiscal year 2023, but Mr. Gaetz had apparently decided to use his time to criticize the a former U.S. Secretary of State for what he described as U.S. Defense failures caused by the Pentagon’s embrace of “vigilance.” In particular, Mr. Gaetz asked about a lecture given at the US National Defense University by the French economist and author Thomas Picketty entitled “Answer to China: The Case of Global Justice and Democratic Socialism.” “Why should American taxpayers fund lectures at National Defense University that promote socialism as a strategy to fight China?” asked. When Mr. Austin, who oversees the entire Department of Defense, told the Florida Republican that the NDU is an “academic institution” and said he did not know about the lecture, Mr. Gaets said he had no knowledge of specific lessons at school “. surprised “and asked if he agreed that” embracing socialism “would not be” an effective strategy to fight China “. He said he “certainly” did not agree with “embracing socialism”, so Mr Gaetz asked why an academy at the Department of Defense was “inviting people with whom we do not agree to preach views and values that we do not share”. instead of “learning strategy on how to fight our enemies and make accurate estimates”. The Florida Republican then began criticizing Mr. Austin, a retired four-star general in the military, for what the Pentagon recently said was “blowing up a lot of strategic calls lately.” “Mr. Minister, you told us that Russia could not lose. You told us that the Taliban could not win immediately. “And so I guess I wonder what of the $ 773 billion you’re asking for today will help you make estimates that are accurate in the face of so many physical calls,” he said. Mr Austin said he would let the budget request speak for itself, but Mr Gaetz did not stop there, saying the United States was “behind on ultrasound” and “failed to stop Russia”. “While everyone else in the world seems to be developing skills and being more strategic, we have time to embrace critical theory in West Point, to embrace socialism at National Defense University, to do compulsory pronoun training,” he said. the Secretary of Defense to intervene that the US military remains “the most capable” and “the most critical for the battle” military force in the world and “will proceed like this”. “I’m sorry you are ashamed of your country,” said the retired general. The Florida lawmaker, who is reportedly under investigation for alleged child sexual abuse, told Austin: “It’s so embarrassing to sit here and combine your failures with the failures of uniformed members of the service – you said that “Russia would occupy Ukraine in 36 days. You said the Taliban would be kept away for months.” “You completely blew up those calls and maybe we would be better off with them if the National Defense University really worked a little more on strategy and a little less on vigilance,” he said. Outraged, Mr. Austin shouted, “Did it not occur to you that Russia has not overtaken Ukraine because of what we and our allies have done?” Gaetz responded that the ability of Ukrainian forces to withstand Russia was “baked” in the “reduced rating” of the Minister of Defense, although he did not say how.
