Writing for military magazine Task and Purpose, retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Greg Newbold argued that critical race theory and related ideologies run counter to the "stone-cold pragmatism" needed to win conflicts.

"Wars must be waged only with stone-cold pragmatism, not idealism, and fought only when critical national interests are at stake," he wrote. "Hopes for changing cultures to fit our model are both elitist and naive. The failures of our campaigns in Iraq and especially in Afghanistan confirm this."

Meanwhile, the tenets of critical race theory—an offshoot of the Marxist critical theory school—can ruin unit cohesion, he added.

"A military force's greatest strengths are cohesion and discipline," said Newbold, who retired in 2002. "Individuality or group identity is corrosive and a centrifugal force. Indeed, the military wears uniforms because uniformity is essential."

"The tenets of Critical Race Theory—a cross-disciplinary intellectual and social movement that seeks to examine the intersection of race and law in the United States, but which has the unfortunate effect of dividing people along racial lines—undermine our military's unity and diminish our warfighting capabilities."