The verbal gymnastics by our Defense secretary whenever he orders a Confederate monument to go back up is truly Olympian.
To wit, Secretary Pete Hegseth just ordered the army to refurbish a 1914 Arlington Confederate Monument to the tune of $10 million and restore it by 2027. Hegseth called it a “reconciliation monument … taken down by woke lemmings.”
In his announcement, Hegseth avoids the actual name of the monument, “The Arlington Confederate Monument.” In fact, nothing in his statement mentions the Confederacy at all. There’s a reason for that: Congress passed a law in 2019 preventing the Department of Defense from naming or renaming anything after the Confederacy. Hence, “reconciliation monument.”
In his announcement, Hegseth avoids the actual name of the monument, “The Arlington Confederate Monument.” In fact, nothing in his statement mentions the Confederacy at all. There’s a reason for that: Congress passed a law in 2019 preventing the Department of Defense from naming or renaming anything after the Confederacy. Hence, “reconciliation monument.”