As the Marine Corps approaches its 250th birthday, the best gift the administration and Congress could give it would be a brand, new commandant. The current one is not worthy of the office. General Eric Smith lied to the press — and thus the American people — regarding the Marine Corps involvement in DEI. This is the following statement to the press pool on January 15th of this year: “As far as DEI, the Marine Corps has not had DEI programs … We don’t do DEI in the Marine Corps, we never have.”
General Smith made this statement even as his staff was frantically dismantling the Corps’ diversity office and wiping its websites clean of directives such as Talent Management 2030 which had an entire section devoted to DEI, stressing: reinforcing diversity, promoting equity, and encouraging a culture of inclusion. His was a bare-faced lie that represented the equivalent of making a false official statement which is a court martial offense under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
At a minimum, he should have been relieved of his duties. He could have avoided this by telling the reporters: We obeyed the orders of the Obama and Biden administrations out of respect for civilian control and will comply with the new administration to remove those policies. That would have been the end of the issue, but no-one has ever accused Smith of being the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.
Mr. Hegseth took him at his word and recently praised the Marine Corps as the only service not to embrace DEI. Whether this is a result of poor staff work by his speechwriters, or of Mr. Hegseth’s desire not to embarrass the Marine Corps as its birthday approaches is probably moot; he was led to make a statement that was not accurate and that can be proved false in the Public Record. The members of the press who were bamboozled by this nonsense are equally to blame.
The real damage done by Smith’s words and actions and that of his predecessor — Davin Berger — is a loss of respect of the office of commandant within the Marine Corps family, retired and active. Traditionally, the commandant has had the power and prestige in the Corps that most resembles that of the Pope of the Holy Roman Church. That respect is now greatly diminished.
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