Commentary

As a proud Air Force veteran, who has frequently written about the value of that experience in my career, regular readers may also recall my commentaries in which I have been highly critical of what was happening to our military under President Biden.

It has been disheartening to see how Biden has allowed our military to deteriorate as he invoked policies that involved using our military service men and women as his experimental subjects in quasi clinical studies.

With the recent release of the Heritage Foundation’s 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength, reporting of its “weak” rating “at growing risk of not being able to meet the demands of defending America’s vital national interests,” I thought it was time to provide commentary on how Biden’s policies were responsible.

One of former President Trump’s major achievements was rebuilding the armed forces after years of neglect.  He convinced Congress to support his “peace through strength” agenda to deter aggressors, like China.

Although initially viewed with skepticism, especially with his comments on North Korea, they soon saw in him a prudence in the application of force.

However, just as we saw Biden reverse Trump’s policy on energy independence, we saw a series of embarrassing actions by Biden that have severely affected our military.

On his fifth day in office, Biden issued an executive order, “Enabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform.”  While it specifies that “All Americans who are qualified to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States should be able to serve,” the order primarily covers gender identity. “It is my conviction as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces that gender identity should not be a bar to military service,” he wrote.

On April 30, 2021, the Department of Defense issued a 22-page instruction for “In-Service Transition for Transgender Service Members,” outlining a policy by which service members may transition gender while serving.

All service members have been attending mandatory gender identity and gender expression training.

Systemic Racism – In line with Biden’s belief that systemic racism exists in the United States, each of the military service academies have taught or introduced some form of critical race theory or anti-racism training of its future leaders.

In response to questioning by the House Armed Services Committee, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley argued that it was important for military cadets and officers “to be open-minded and be widely-read about concepts across the ideological spectrum.”

By April 2022, some 3,400 troops were involuntarily separated from the service for refusing to get the Covid 19 vaccine, with about 70 percent having received general discharges. The remaining discharges were honorable.

The Marine Corps discharged 1,968 members, while the Navy discharged 798 sailors, the Army discharged 345 and the Air Force 287.  Those who were discharged can return to the military if vaccinated.

On June 13, 2022, I was critical of the Navy’s issuance of “Climate Action 2030,” in which it identifies climate change as an “existential threat” to the U. S. Navy and the nation.  The U. S. Army’s climate strategy simply noted that “risks associated with climate change are broad, significant, and urgent.”

October 12, 2022 – With all of these time-consuming activities taking place, the Defense Department also found time to form a Naming Commission to foolishly wipe Confederate States of America references from U.S. military assets.  Nine bases and 1,100 other assets honoring the Confederacy.

“The names of these installations and facilities should inspire all those who call them home, fully reflect the history and the values of the United States and commensurate with the best of the republic that we are all sworn to protect,” said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Included in the name changes are Fort Rucker, Fort Benning, Fort Gordon, Fort Polk, Fort Bragg, Fort Hood, Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee and Fort Pickett.  Austin expects the name changes to be made by January 1, 2024.

Recruiting Woes – Is it any wonder that the U.S. Army announced this month that it missed its fiscal year recruiting goal by 25 percent, coming up short nearly 2,000 soldiers?  Could it be that those teenagers haven’t forgotten how Biden’s flawed withdrawal of Afghanistan caused the deaths of 13 troopers?

Despite that, the Army is blaming obesity, addiction and criminal history as the main disqualifying reasons in recruiting, the media hasn’t helped with tales of racism.

So desperate for recruits, the secretaries of the Army, Navy and Air Force collaborated on an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal writing:

We join to ask every young American to consider serving in the U.S. military.  If you seek a life of purpose and passion, if you hope to invest your talents in a cause bigger than yourself, if you want to belong to a community of people who also choose to serve, you can find that connection and more in the armed forces.”

There was a time when I believed that, but I’m not so sure in the Biden military.

Returning to the 2023 Index of Military Strength rating of “weak,” with all of this chaos within the Defense Department it isn’t difficult to understand that it is a measure of the military’s ability to prevail in two major regional conflicts at once – a conflict in the Middle East and another in the Pacific, say Taiwan.

Separate from the recruiting woes, the index looks at assets like ships, tanks and aircraft.  Heritage appropriately states that “you can’t deter war, much less win one, on the cheap.”

Kramerontheright suggests that the DOD avoid wokeism at all cost, and remove “equity,” “inclusion,” “gender identity,” “climate control,” and “systemic racism” from the military glossary.  Instead, concentrate on military readiness.

How can Generals Austin and Milley expect the U.S. Army to carry out its core purpose, “To deploy, fight and win the nation’s wars, providing ready, prompt, and sustain land dominance as part of the Joint Force,” if the leadership is more concerned over proper pronoun use?

As we close in on Election Day, may God continue to bless the United States of America,