{"id":43383,"date":"2018-08-02T00:30:30","date_gmt":"2018-08-02T03:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=43383"},"modified":"2021-04-01T13:51:28","modified_gmt":"2021-04-01T16:51:28","slug":"retired-general-norton-schwartzs-legacy-is-iraq-mikey-weinstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/02\/retired-general-norton-schwartzs-legacy-is-iraq-mikey-weinstein\/","title":{"rendered":"Retired General Norton Schwartz’s Legacy is Iraq, Mikey Weinstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen (Ret) Norton Schwartz was on a book tour recently, having recently completed his “Journey: Memoirs of an Air Force Chief of Staff<\/a>.” In an interview<\/a> supporting the tour and a local book signing, the writing journalist focused on two things.<\/p>\n

First, the state of the military as it relates to Iraq, Afghanistan, and future conflict: <\/p>\n

After more than 15 years of intense focus on counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, the U.S. military is not as ready as it needs to be to fight against nations like North Korea and Russia…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Second, religious freedom:<\/p>\n

As Air Force Chief of Staff, Schwartz received some push back and criticism for issuing an Air Force-wide memorandum in 2011 emphasizing the separation of church and state.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That memo<\/a>, of course, was famous — more accurately, infamous<\/a> — at the time, and it would eventually be encapsulated in a new Air Force regulation<\/a>, AFI 1-1. The core sentiment is the one Michael “Mikey” Weinstein still cites today — using the Air Force’s own rules, written by Gen Schwartz, as a bludgeon against religious freedom in military.<\/p>\n

And remember, the MRFF has intimated<\/a> in the past that Mikey Weinstein was the reason<\/em> the Air Force published those rules.<\/p>\n

Weinstein claims to have been chummy with Gen Schwartz, claiming they talked on the phone multiple times a week<\/a> (though sometimes Weinstein was too busy watching TV to take the call). Apparently, though, Weinstein felt the CSAF never went far enough — and Weinstein excoriated Gen Schwartz<\/a> as a result (after<\/em> he retired, of course).<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Gen Schwartz himself claims his direction as Chief of Staff on “religious neutrality…might be the most lasting contribution of [his] tenure.” That “lasting contribution” was essentially reversed<\/a> after he retired.<\/p>\n

So you’re retiring after nearly 40 years in the US military, and your career is summed up with ‘we didn’t anticipate IEDs in Iraq” and hostility to religious freedom via Mikey Weinstein.<\/p>\n

How’s that for a legacy?<\/p>\n

If you’d like to read the actual autobiography, it’s available on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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