The
Department of Defense
proudly declares that “our mission is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security.”
If only that remained true. Today, the U.S. military’s mission is increasingly distracted and its capability diluted by a focus on aping political correctness and identity politics. This theme will be the focus of a
series of articles
published this week for
the
Washington Examiner
‘s
Restoring America page
, which will feature expert voices from leading organizations, including the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Independent Women’s Forum, and Stand Together Against Racism and Radicalism in the Services. The need for public attention to what is happening in the U.S. military is significant.
GAVIN NEWSOM’S CAMPAIGN TO REPEAL THE SECOND AMENDMENT
Take the words of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, for example. Granholm recently declared her support for the Biden administration’s absurd effort to see the U.S. military adopt an all-electric vehicle fleet by 2030. Or, consider the service members who
complain
of personnel escaping consequences for shoddy performance or physical fitness failures because officers and noncommissioned officers are worried that they will face retaliation for imposing consequences that are then labeled noninclusive.
Ask a member of the military whether they believe a quiet chilling effect is metastasizing against common sense, and they’ll likely say yes.
This trend is not surprising, of course. After all, Army officer cadets are now being
taught
how to understand “whiteness and white rage.” Army fitness standards are being
weakened
to enable higher pass rates. Navy personnel complain that much of their time is spent on training seminars that have nothing to do with their core mission responsibilities. Naval Academy midshipmen are subject to a
mind-numbing maze
of diversity, equity, and inclusion protocols. Air Force personnel deployed abroad find that their base libraries become
homes
for drag events.
This dynamic could hardly be occurring at a worse time.
Chinese President
Xi Jinping
is using his warships to threaten an American treaty ally, the Philippines. Xi has ordered his military to be ready to invade
Taiwan
by 2030. This is no joke.
China’s
People’s Liberation Army is churning out highly capable warships at rates that make the U.S. Navy’s ship construction schedule look pathetic in comparison. The PLA has also built a vast apparatus of space and missile forces designed to destroy U.S. forces operating in the western Pacific. Likewise, though its army has been badly diminished in Ukraine,
Russia
poses a continued and significant air, naval, and nuclear forces challenge. And the nuclear threats of Iran and North Korea lurk in the background.
The military’s defining mission is to deter adversaries and maintain readiness to fight and win wars. At its most basic level, the fulfillment of this obligation requires the embrace of an inherently politically incorrect construct — namely, the professional contemplation of and readiness to deliver lethal violence against an enemy. There is a reason, for example, that the Army’s historical definition of the infantry’s mission is not “to form introspective units that seek compromise and communion with others.” Rather the infantry’s historic
mission
is “to close with the enemy by means of fire and maneuver. Its purpose is to destroy or capture him, to repel his assaults by fire, close combat, and counterattack, or all of these.” There is a reason that the Marine Corps teaches its youngest Marines about the importance of ”
Battles Won
.”
Getting the military refocused on its mission doesn’t mean it should abandon efforts to bolster its recruitment of personnel from different demographics. On the contrary, it makes sense that the military better reflects the population it serves. We thus welcome President Joe Biden’s nomination of
Gen. Charles Brown
, the Air Force chief of staff, to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Brown has made recruitment diversity a key object. But he has only done so to the degree that this complements rather than diminishes the Air Force’s combat readiness. Behind the scenes, Brown is best known as a smart leader who is determined to make sure the Air Force is ready to fight China.
Still, the foundation of what has made the U.S. military the world’s strongest — its matching of force capability to force readiness — is increasingly in danger. By fixating on the idea that prejudice and injustice are ever-present concerns rather than problematic but generally peripheral ones, the military is tolerating a diminishing of its mission at the altar of wokeness. It is bowing to ideologues who despise the institutions of comradeship, self-sacrifice, and patriotism that underpin military service.
The political Left might claim our concerns are inventions of feeble conservative minds. But they may come to regret that understanding if the United States goes to war with China or Russia.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM RESTORING AMERICA’S ‘MILITARY UNREADINESS’ SERIES
