Too woke to wage war

The world is seeing tensions rise between major global powers, reaching levels not seen since the Cold War. Russia invaded Ukraine, China has its sights on Taiwan, and now Russia and China are partners, allied against the United States.

The U.S. has made a series of poor decisions that have now put us in the position of not being able to wage war on two fronts, something we successfully did in World War II. First, we decided to deplete our weapons arsenal by sending more than
$110 billion
of money and material to Ukraine. Second, we have let our Navy
shrink
to a fleet of only 296 ships in fiscal 2022, compared to the 417 vessels in the
Chinese
navy.

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“The United States is underprepared for a war with
China
,” retired U.S. Gen. Jack Keane warned in January. He continued, “We are not as prepared as we should be. We do not have an effective military deterrence in the region. China has more ships, more planes, and more missiles than the United States has.”

But what has the military’s response been to Russian aggression in Europe and the threat of China invading Taiwan? It has doubled down on divisive, harmful leftist policies that undermine military readiness and national security. Indeed, it’s fair to say the military is now too woke to fight.

Earlier this month, the Pentagon finally decided to enforce its rule of not allowing shows involving drag performers to be hosted at military facilities, causing leaders to cancel a drag show in “celebration of Pride Month at the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The cancellation of the event marked the first time the Defense Department’s most senior leaders have enforced the policy,” per
Politico

.
Does anyone think the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is staging drag shows on its bases? How about the Russians?

It doesn’t stop there. Politicians and military leaders have decided that the true key to total military victory is to strip “
Confederate namesakes
from installations, ships, awards, and more” so the names do not trigger any soldiers, sailors, or airmen. The cost of renaming nine
Army
bases that honored the Confederacy has nearly doubled to $39 million. When not spending time on drag shows or “inappropriate” names, our military leadership and the Biden administration are also extremely concerned with the carbon footprint of our military machine. The Biden administration has mandated that the U.S. military implement an all-electric
vehicle
fleet by 2030. The Army specifically plans to cut its
emissions
by 50% by “2030 from 2005 levels and reach net-zero emissions by 2050,” in addition to embracing an all-electric fleet.

There’s just one challenge that everyone seems to have forgotten. There is not an excess of charging stations in the U.S., let alone in war zones. We will end up in a situation where electric military vehicles will have to tow diesel generators behind them to charge their batteries. That’s not exactly the “green friendly” result the climate warriors were hoping to achieve.

Recruitment is down, with many branches substantially missing their enlistment goals. The pool of those “eligible to join the
military
continues to shrink, with more young men and women than ever before disqualified for obesity, drug use or criminal records. Only 23% of Americans ages 17-24 are qualified to serve without waivers,” according to NBC News. Only 9% of the country said they “would consider military service.”

Sadly, more military families are steering their children away from service. Less than 63% of military families would “recommend the
military
to someone they care about. Since 80% of the young people who join the military today have a family member in the military — and 25-30% have a parent in the military,” this has dire consequences for recruitment.

The military needs to regain its swagger and become the war-fighting machine it was when I wore the uniform. The job of the military is to be prepared to destroy the enemy, not to be a social experiment, worried about its carbon footprint or “scary” base names. Former Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo
, a West Point graduate, put it this way: “How can we ask young men and women who have decided to risk their lives for America, even die for America, to affirm that our country is inherently racist? How can we ask them to view their brothers and sisters in arms through the narrow prisms of race or gender? The answer is we cannot.”

We have all heard the phrase “Go woke, go broke.” Perhaps it is time to realize that a woke military is a weak military.

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Jim Nelles is a supply chain consultant based in Chicago. He has served as a chief procurement officer, chief supply chain officer, and chief operations officer for multiple companies.