Can A Woke Military Win Wars?

Authored by Roger Kimball via The Epoch Times,

For a couple of years now, the U.S. military has had a serious recruitment problem.

That isn’t really a surprise.

Our leaders have injected the entire menu of radical “woke” ideology into the tissues of the military establishment.

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worries about “white rage” and supports teaching critical race theory to the troops.

When Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin took office under President Joe Biden, he issued a 60-day “stand down” order to the entire military in pursuit of battling “extremism” and achieving “equity” in the military (pdf).

In March 2022, the Biden administration announced a new policy under which people suffering from gender dysphoria would not only be allowed to serve in the military but also would have their “gender reassignment” surgery paid for by taxpayers.

Traditionally, conservative families, especially conservative working-class families, supplied a large percentage of military recruits.

Those families are not thrilled by the intrusion of such politically correct sentiments into an institution hitherto marked by its commitment to traditional moral and martial values.

They aren’t interested in sending their children to be catechized by anti-American Marxists or apostles of sexual exotica.

The Biden administration seems blissfully unaware of this reality.

At least, I assume it’s unaware of what two retired Army generals called “a major threat to our national security.”

Otherwise, it would be difficult to explain Biden’s recent executive order regarding “environmental justice.”

According to the White House, the new order is part of the administration’s “whole-of-government effort to confront longstanding environmental injustices and inequities.”

Of course, we live at a time when everything is potentially racist.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg even argued that highway designs in the United States are “racist.”

So it should come as no surprise that “environmental justice” is really just an aspect of “racial justice.”

“For far too long,” the executive order reads, “communities across our country have faced persistent environmental injustice through toxic pollution, underinvestment in infrastructure and critical services, and other disproportionate environmental harms often due to a legacy of racial discrimination including redlining.”

And let’s not forget the other big-ticket item on the agenda of the left: “climate change.” “These communities with environmental justice concerns face even greater burdens due to climate change,” the White House stated.

The Department of Defense has even issued an “environmental scorecard” grading itself on its progress toward fulfilling the Green Dream.

There are bits about “Consultation and Partnership with Tribal Nations,” addressing “environmental justice concerns,” and “institutionalizing” “our country’s bedrock environmental laws.”

There was nothing about making sure that the U.S. military was an agile and lethal fighting force well-equipped with the most modern and capable weapons.

Such concerns seem to have been put on the back burner (but not, of course, a burner on a gas stove).

Once upon a time, people joined the military to serve their country.

Now they’re being asked to join a therapy group to promote a progressive agenda.

Increasingly, the answer to that call is, “No thanks.”

Over the past few years, the world has entered a new and more dangerous phase.

Vladimir Putin’s adventures in Ukraine are one sign of that yeastiness.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s repeated announcements that he’s “preparing for war” are another.

Is this really the best time for the United States to hand over its military to the same sort of woke bureaucrats who brought you that notorious Bud Light partnership with transgender “influencer” Dylan Mulvaney?

Take Biden’s executive order about “environmental justice” and put it next to his attack on the U.S. energy industry, his abandonment of the Southern border, and his reckless economic policies that have dealt a body blow to the middle and working classes.

Then ask yourself this: If Joe Biden wanted to hurt the United States, to make it poorer, less secure, less safe, what would he do differently?

Representative James Comer (R-Ky.) recently noted that it is now known that “at least 9 Biden family members sold access for profit around the world.”

He asked a most pertinent question: “What were our foreign adversaries paying for?”

I would be interested in learning the answer.