When Jeb Bush announced his support for lifting the ban on transgender troops, he not only placed himself firmly in President Obama’s camp on the issue, he also demonstrated a dangerous misunderstanding of the U.S. military that raises serious questions about his ability to serve as commander in chief.
Conforming the military’s recruiting standards to Bush’s progressive views would only put our service members — and our national security — in jeopardy. Ending the ban on transgender troops, as Bush supports, would create a new protected class of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines in need of highly specialized medical treatments who in many cases would likely be exempt from the combat deployments to austere environments that have become the norm for our armed forces.
Military morale and combat effectiveness would erode for no other reason than to placate the forces of political correctness.
What Jeb Bush fails to understand is that the military is not an equal-opportunity jobs program. It’s a highly selective organization that has strict qualification requirements and a simple overarching mission: To protect the United States from threats both foreign and domestic. Every American can try to join the military, but no one has a right to join the military. That’s because we need people who can do the job and must not change the military’s requirements to accommodate the individual.
In America, we celebrate the freedom of the individual and self-expression. But the military is an institution that deliberately subordinates individualism to create unit cohesion. When you join the military, you sacrifice your individuality for the good of the whole in service to your country. A person standing out in a group makes it harder for the team to work as a unit. It seems Jeb Bush was in such a rush to placate the transgender movement that he never stopped to think these issues through.
As a civilian, I can write an op-ed on these pages that is critical of America’s commander in chief, while a commissioned officer of our armed forces would face a dishonorable discharge for doing the same. A civilian who commits adultery faces no legal consequences, while a service member who does so would be punishable under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. A civilian can walk off his job mid-shift, while a combat solider would be branded a deserter and face a court martial.
While Jeb Bush is focusing on niche liberal issues like using our armed forces as a petri dish for social experiments, our armed forces face much greater challenges. Hollowed out by President Obama, the military is at risk of not being able to carry out its missions. Cuts in troop and ship levels have left us with a fighting force that is only “marginally” able to defend our interests, according to the Heritage Foundation.
Meanwhile, we still lack a coherent strategy to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism and are stuck with a president who has rewarded our enemies and abandoned our allies by striking a terrible nuclear deal with Iran that the next president should scrap.
It’s time for Jeb Bush to focus on the real issues facing our military and stop viewing every potential sexual expression as something that must be accommodated by our fighting men and women. The military is not the place to celebrate one’s sexual identity, and if Jeb Bush had any understanding of our armed forces, he would know that.
The safety of all Americans — not liberal social causes — should be and must be the highest priority of our military. If Jeb Bush doesn’t realize this, perhaps he’s not fit to be commander in chief.
General Paul Vallely is a retired U.S. Army Major General and Chairman of Stand Up America. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
