Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders drags and Air Force commander into her political circus,
publicizing his resignation to push her religious right wing agenda. After Colonel Peterson of
the one to eighty eighth Air Wing Arkansas Air National Guard resigned citing personal reasons,
The governor in foreigned President Biden AND's Secretary of Defense Austin that the military's
pay leave program for abortion care compromises. Excuse me, the commander's religious beliefs,
and it is their fault. Our country is now weaker. With no
official word from the colonel, we are left with this political hack meddling in
military affairs without any real regard for the commander's situation. But isn't it better
for a commander to step down when they realize that their religious beliefs conflict with
their duties. As the military grapples with complex reproductive issues, Patterson's departure could
highlight the clash between personal ideologies with principles of service, while Sanders actions highlight
her lack of professionalism and military prowess. The story is from Task and Purpose
dot com by Jeff Shogel on January third, twenty twenty four and Infidel.
You and I have been talking about this all week. You know, this
is not the first time that we've mentioned it. Actually, I brought this
up to you to see if we could talk about on the show, because
as a service member, you know, I kind of take this a little
bit personally, and before I get into kind of my thoughts and opinions,
I wanted to see your what yours were on this topic. I do say
that I think that Huckabee first did a disservice to the military by saying that
by trying to imply this or play this as a as a role of lesson
capability because of this resignation. In no way do I see anything that would
say that he is incompetent or anything less than a perfectly good leader in his
position. I do take issue with the way he decided at this point that
he just couldn't do this any further. I do feel that there was likely
some type of motivation that made him make a decision between his moral choice and
his responsibility as as as a leader that he was supposed to be. My
problem is is that I don't see where he made the big sacrifice. You
know, when I when I look back at examples, biblical examples of the
boldness of Simon Peter or Saul or Paul. You see someone to put something
in the game. There was skin in the game. It wasn't just something
where Okay, well, I'm going to lose some privileges of leadership, because
he's definitely going to lose privileges of the leadership, But ultimately, at the
end of the day, he's not going to lose his job. And I'm
not saying he should, nor his rank, but it's really not that great
of a commitment for him to make this decision. Now, it does annoy
me that Huckabee, never to lose an opportunity to score political points, is
going to hop right on this. I do think that this gentleman probably made
this choice over abortion. I don't think that's being misrepresented and and I do
find a real problem with that. But for Huckaby to then hop on this
and some of the things that she said are just absolutely ridiculous, talking about
how this is a political decision. Uh, you know, having this rule
in a play where the federal government allows the military to go to a state
that's less restrictive. It's so dishonest because I don't think people are going out
there having abortions and for political reasons. That right there is just completely false.
People are having an abortions for very reasons of their own decision, their
own decision to make, but ultimately not a political choice. Was her as
a political choice, yes, like just about everything she does. So when
it comes down to it, I don't see him as an act of bravery.
I think it's beth lethargy and in action. You know, given up
the awesome parking spot and all those advantages. Isn't really making a commitment for
life or whatever this is supposed to be representative of. Now, when it
comes down to it, I'm glad at least this story is getting some recognition
because I agree with you on the point, Jimmy, that if there's a
problem, if you have an issue and you believe God's first, that is
your right. But make that decision the day they come into conflict, not
the day it becomes inconvenient. And that's what I feel like we have here.
We have a grifter taking advantage of a person who became a wilful pawn
because it was no longer convenient to ride with the status quo. So here
I am. Look at me. Woohoo. I'm not that impressed. Now,
Helen, what about you? Where you come from on this issue?
What are your ideas? Well? The first thing I thought when I read
this article, well like, while somebody wants to run for office, that
was the first thing that popped into my brain. And I could be wrong,
but the timing of his resignation, you know, he's a little you
know, suspicion to me and deviating and any proof of these claims that are
rutten through my brain brain now, But I'm just I'm just a little you
know, hesitant to think that this alone is being done for his morals alone.
It might, but the timing is very odd. And like I said,
I don't know his mind, but I'm wondering on some level this might
be a political stunt. He might be standing up for his morals, but
it can also be calculated at the same time. And again, I don't
know, but that's that was my feeling when I first initially wrote read this
article, And honestly, like, I don't really care. If his ideology
and his religion are that he has an anti choice stance, that's fine,
But I I just find this whole thing a little weird, and I do
have more to stay on this, but I'm going to pass it over to
Grant for now because I want to get his reflections for me before I go
into the rest of mine, and I also want to hear what everybody else
has to say. Sure, no problem, I have I think a similar
reaction. I initially when I read it, I was focused on the serviceman,
and then I read Jimmy's pre show notes where he was sort of saying,
Hey, is this Huckabee Sanders being opportunistic? And that made me sort
of rethink a little bit. But when I was thinking about what I wanted
to focus on, I did want to focus on Huckabee and her sentence that
she said she said quote. Colonel Patterson was forced to personally choose between either
continuing his command or adhering to his sincerely held religious beliefs against abortion. He
was forced to choose. This is what Dan Dennet used to call a deepity.
It's kind of a weird form of it, but it's still a deepity.
A deepity is something that it's a statement to that to the extent it
is true, it is trivial and to the extent that it is significant or
profound, it is false. So here we have a claim that Peterson was
quote forced to choose between continuing his command or adhering to his beliefs. But
to what extent was he forced? He joined the military voluntarily. I assume
you know, the Bible endorses conscription and slave soldiers, but we don't do
that. So it's a voluntary service. And he knew when he joined he
would be prosecuted if by force, if necessary, if he failed to obey
the lawful orders of his chain of command. So did he understand that,
Of course he did. So was he forced to make the decision? Well,
in a trivial matter, yes, he was forced to make a decision.
He had to either follow orders or he had the luxury because he was
in the National Guard to quit, and so he was forced to make a
decision. Is that a profound thing. No, everyone in the military is
constantly forced to make such decisions, if they even have the luxury to quit,
you know, Plus everybody in a regular job does. If you work
for a big chemical company you learn that they've been dumping chemicals in people's backyards,
are you are forced to make a decision, So there's nothing astounding here.
It goes I think to what Jimmy was saying is he may legitimately have
just said, I'm going to make this choice to quit. I don't like
what my employer's doing. I am going to leave this job now. I
do agree with Helen and Infidel to say the timing was interesting. He knew
he took his command five months after this rule went into effect, so he
knew what he's getting into, and so he put his troops through a change
of command only to five months later have them go through another one. So
that's a little bit suspicious to me. But I think the main focus of
Jimmy's notes regarding Huckabe are really what I want to go. The decision that
he was making was between honoring and oath he swore at the Constitution and walking
away. It wasn't a decision between honoring his oath and his religion, right,
It's just not a big deal. Quite frankly, that's kind of what
I walked away with. In the past, we have seen big deals.
If you remember Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused the gay couple a
marriage license. She was in the news this week. Ten years later,
I think of court finally ordered her to pay an extra two hundred and sixty
thousand dollars to the couple's attorneys, after she'd already spent five days in jail
and paid the couple one hundred grand for using her position of power to enforce
her personal beliefs on them. That's an example further of somebody being quote unquote
forced to decide. Yet we all look at that and go, yeah,
she did the wrong thing. The couple could have come in said we want
a license, and she could have said I quit like this serviceman. But
instead she used her authority to fight it. So props to him, quite
frankly, for walk away and not dishonoring his oath and not soiling the constitution,
And shame on Huckaby for taking advantage of that honorable decision that he made.
Well, is that where you're getting, Jimmy, I think so.
Really. What I want to say though, is that we wouldn't be talking
about this at all had Sarah Huckabee Sanders not jumped on the opportunity to take
this man's personal life and drag it out into the political arena. Now before
I go any further. I just want to acknowledge that because I am a
military officer, that I am not here to provide official comment, and I'm
not here as a representative of the government, the Air Force, or the
Department of Defense. My thoughts and opinions on my own, and those are
that we don't even know if this is even true. I mean, did
he resign for this reason or is that just something that Sarah Huckabee Sanders is
saying because there is no official statement from him, and he doesn't even owe
us one right. He submitted his resignation and cited personal reasons. Okay,
Sarah Huckabye Sanders stood stepped in and then dragged him before the President and the
Department of Defense to use him as a political pawn. But this is inconsistent
with what we've seen, and like you said, you know, not to
downplay his contribution to our country and his service. But it is just one
colonel, and the military is not set up in the way that if one
colonel steps down from command that the whole thing is going to fall. No,
there is somebody else ready to step in and to do their very best
and to follow their orders. And I actually would prefer that if this is
even true, and that this commander said, well, you know, these
abortion rules, these paid leave rules for abortion that the military has are really
conflicting me, and I need to step out of command. I commend him
for that. Here's the thing, though, he didn't even really quit.
I mean, he's still serving. He just couldn't command because of personal reasons.
And that's all we know. But Sara Huckabee Sanders stepped in to say,
hey, everybody, look religion, Look Democrats, and tried to turn
this into something it's not because we do know, unlike the commander, unlike
the assessment that we could make saying, well, the timing's interesting. You
know he might be he might be gearing up for a political run. We
have no proof of that. What we do have proof of is Sarah Huckabye
Sanders with her own political goals. And I didn't see her about getting back
to this thing being inconsistent when Secretary of Defense James Maddis set down because of
how we were treating our allies. I don't remember her even lifting a finger
about this. I don't remember her raising a stink at all. This is
the Secretary of Defense, as opposed to one colonel in the International Guard.
But this, this is what we really need to follow. So you know,
I have a little bit, a little bit more I can say about
this. I just as as somebody in the military. While Sarah Huckaby Sanders
stepped in to take advantage of this situation, I want to take advantage of
the opportunity to point out her disingenuine disingenuity, dis ingenuousness I can speak.
But anyway, those are my initial thoughts. And yeah, I'll kick it
over to Infidel to see if he's got anything to follow up. I would
put nothing past Huckaby if anything has shown her to be king at bad decision
making. Just look at the podium she is stood behind at one point.
That was she paid twenty thousand dollars to the state of Arkansas, paid twenty
thousand dollars for so she and of course she lies about so consistently that there's
no way I could ever get a read on anything. You know, she
said it in person, but yes, we only have her words, and
we have no idea really other than personal reasons. I am suspicious, but
suspicion doesn't say definitively anything I can be suspicious all day. But the truth
is is that I do know one thing, and that is is that while
Huckabee talks about how important life is and how important she how pro life she
is. And this is somewhat of Jason, but there's a guy who's been
sitting in prison in Arkansas since nineteen ninety one, Charlie Vaughan. He's illiterate.
He missed a date to file some paperwork because somebody else was convicted of
the crime that he was convicted of, and it finally ended up on her
desk as past Thanksgiving, and her answer was essentially, ah, yeah,
okay, yeah, you did miss the paperwork. Too bad. You can
try again in six years. So that doesn't sound pro life to me.
So with that in mind, pro life is a game. It's a pawn,
especially for a state that ranks eleventh in prisons and has some of the
lowest standards of livings of most many third world countries. I mean, they're
down there at the bottom of the United States forty eighth and forty ninth and
almost everything. We used to joke in Louisiana that Arkansas and Mississippi existed,
so we wouldn't be fiftieth and she's consistently holding that. It's like they're doing
everything they can to deny the ability of people to change things. And you
know, but you know, let's let's let's make sure we're pro life and
that somebody doesn't have the right to decide what happens with their body. For
me, it's just disgusting. And Helen, since we're talking about Sanders,
let me quote her. So she has said Colonel Patterson was forced to personally
choose between either continuing his command or hearing to his sincerity held religious beliefs against
a portion Satah's wrote a letter first reported by conservative outlet The Daily Caller.
Because he adhered first to his faith instead of overly political mandates, he voluntarily
resigned his command. I am Colonel Patterson for having the confidence of his convictions,
but regret that our nation's military will suffer the losses of dedicated airman,
leader and guardsmen as a commander. Well, I want to ask Sarah what
is it? Was he forced or did he voluntary resign or a policy that
had nothing to do with him? So, and I just find it kind
of disgusting that she's using this for her own political clout. She's dog whistling
to all the Republicans, you know, and that oh these are you know,
they're doing abortions in the military, you know, and never going to
be pro live, which I find ironic in the military a little bit that
you know, we're going to maybe this is something we should look at,
you know, if people are going to serve that's this is what I see
this, as you know, and I feel this is more of a political
stunt than really, especially on standard size. I can't I can't know the
Commander's you know, true thoughts, and I said that at the beginning,
but I do. I'm a little sess, that's all, you know.
But I'm really disgusted by the fact of the way Sanders is using this just
for you know, her own political gain or whatever candidate she wants to support,
and to also, you know, now try to get people to think
about what's going on in the military. You know, do we really want
this, you know, blah blah blah blah blah. Sorry, I agree.
I think that the distinction between whether or not he did it for legit
reasons or because he wants to go get a book deal later on that I
don't think that's as important. I'm won over by Jimmy's arguments, and I'm
also one over by the coverage that it's getting. After Jimmy brought this up,
I googled these stories just to see how is the media treating this,
and the conservative outlets are all have headlines that say one hundred and eighty eighth
Wing commander resigns due to Pentagon policy regarding abortion. All of the neutral and
liberal sources say Governor Sanders colon one hundred and eighty eighth, when you know,
they basically say Governor Sanders is says that this happened, and that's what
actually happened. The other the conservatives, the Fox News, the local Arkansas
local, you know, five at Live at five channels, are all just
saying this as a fact, when all the other, like legit news investigative
reporters are saying, well, all we know is that government Governor Sanders said
this. The official statement from the military is that he resigned his command for
personal reasons. So again, I'm won over by Jimmy's analysis. I think
that in the end, I don't really care. You know, if people
go in and decide to do things for their own personal beliefs. The point
where I get into deep concern is when they do the Kim Davis thing of
I'm going to use my governmental prowt, the democratically imbued power that I have
to attack people based on my own personal beliefs and deny them their rights and
lock them up and do things like that. That's where I think we should
be really concerned. So this is to me and nothing Burger. It's a
deepity. It's a cynical political move by Huckebye Sanders, and nothing more.
Jimmy, Yeah, I would I would like to just give some closing thoughts.
I think I have an obligation to do this, and I really really
feel this way. First of all, I just want to acknowledge that I
owe my career as an officer to a Muslim man, one of the best
leaders that I've ever served with. We serve together despite our differences. People
look at the military and they think that we are this kind of right wing
arm of conservative politics. And that may have been true earlier in history,
but you know what, it's changed. Okay, we have transgender troops that
we supervisor, or I certainly have members of the LGBTQ community and members of
all races, all faiths, and we all put the uniform on and we
really do our best. And there's a lot that I could say. Honestly,
our segment is aimed to be about twenty minutes, and I could probably
go much longer than that, but I do just want to say that politicians
need to stay out of our personal affairs, need to stay out of the
military's affairs. We have the luxury and the expectation to be a political so
let's just leave it. Letting us be a political and do our jobs.
That's what I'm going to say there. I have one follow up to that
is that you are echoing. If you remember Jen Peoples, a host of
the Atheist Experience from long ago. She served in the US Army for twenty
six years. She retired as a lieutenant colonel. She was, if I
recall corrector, a helicopter pilot. Described yourself as one of those foxhole atheists,
and she herself had many stories of serving alongside devotely religious people and all
working towards the same goal, which is, you know, protecting our country.
So thank you, thank everybody else, thank you to Colonel Patterson for
what he's doing. Doing it the right way. So that's I just wanted
to add that, so if you wanted learn more about politicians getting into,
you know, our business or in them building nothing burgers. And also a
wonderful things to our troops and what they do for us, so