The Radical Left's Social Experimentation and Weakening of the U.S. Military

Most of the men in my family have had a long and proud tradition of volunteering to serve and defend the United States of America in its armed forces.  This goes back for many generations.  Dad ran down at the end of World War II to sign up in the Navy.  He was only 17 at the time, and evidently the recruiter was more afraid of my grandmother than of his commanding officer when she “explained” the situation to him.  The Navy immediately discharged Dad and said to try again when he was 18.  Dad did try again… in the Army, where he served during the Korean War. 

When I graduated from high school, my dad had long since passed on from cancer.  My mom had remarried to a hard working but greedy man.  He dearly wanted me to go to his alma mater of the University of Southern California.  I applied to it and half a dozen other colleges and was accepted by all of them.  When the time came to make a decision, I decided I didn’t want my arrogant step-father paying for my college and decided to join the U.S. Navy as an enlisted man so I could pay my own way for college.  Mom was heart-broken and my step dad was angry.  It was the best decision I had ever made up to that point in my young life.

I joined in 1984 and served through 1992.  Some of the friends I made and lessons I learned have served me well into my advanced middle age.  One of my mentors as a young sailor was Equipment Operator First Class Petty Officer Earl Hanson.  Earl was a Vietnam veteran who had seen more than anyone should ever have to witness about the horrors of war.  He was an honorable no-nonsense man who had problems with authority figures that were foolish or stupid with their orders that put other men needlessly in harm’s way.  Earl had attended a couple of non-judicial punishment proceedings as the guest of honor throughout his career in front of his captain where he was summarily reduced in rank.  He had been in the service nearly twenty years when I first met him and was at his terminal career rank, one rank above me after being in only six years.

To say Earl was old-school is a laughable understatement.  He was politically incorrect long before the term was ever invented.  Earl would school us younger sailors about the “God-damned new Navy” and how it was headed straight to hell.  For example, Earl would posit that women-folk were supposed to be protected by men and had no place in the military other than in certain non-combatant fields such as hospital corpsmen or as yeomen working in offices.  They sure as hell didn’t need to be anywhere near the front lines.  Like I said, Earl was old school.  He was also the first guy I wanted to be around in the event of actual hostilities.  I learned more from him about fighting tactics then I did the Marine Corp gunnery sergeant attached to our Seabee battalion.  When we deployed to the beautiful sandy beaches, without the ocean views, of the Middle East during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, I took comfort in knowing that our skipper was a good and solid leader and Earl was in charge of our platoon. 

Today our armed forces seem to be in complete disarray.  For far too long leftist politicians have decided via their policies to do social experimentation amongst the ranks.  NONE of it has help build morale, unit cohesion, or the can-do spirit that is needed when the feces hits the fan.  The military’s ONLY function, as was continuously reiterated by Earl, was to break things and kill people in defense of our greatest nation on earth.  Our mission was to fight and win our nation’s wars.

Fast forward thirty years and we have screamed way past the then-controversial “don’t ask; don’t tell” policies of the Clinton administration.  Today, the Pentagon, which is so busy grand marshalling President Biden's Pride parades that it barely has time for real work, recently announced that it might consider allowing rainbow flags to be flown on installations along with Old Glory.  Needless to say, this is a drastic departure in protocol where only the stars and stripes and perhaps the POW/MIA colors were ever flown on federal military installations.  Evidently, this White House thinks adding political controversies to the military with a divisive flag is what is needed to further divide armed forces members.

In 2020, under Trump's DOD, the policy was simple: "The flags we fly must accord with the military imperatives of good order and discipline, treating all our people with dignity and respect, and rejecting divisive symbols," Defense Secretary Mark Esper said. Now, with Biden launching a full-scale rainbow offensive, some members are pushing back. The idea of turning our flagpoles into an LGBT endorsement is so contentious that Congressman Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.) introduced a bill called the Old Glory Only Act. "The United States flag is the single greatest symbol of freedom the world has ever known, and there's no reason for anything but Old Glory to be flying..." he insisted.

It is demonstrably destructive to unit morale and cohesion to have gay military members living in the really close quarters with other military members which are found in barracks and ships, let alone in combat situations.  There is enough stress for military members without adding a potential sexual attraction component to the situation.  For the record, this is also why having women in combatant or forward posting roles is also a serious problem for unit readiness.

Sadly, our national flag isn’t the only target of Biden's. The militant leftists with their social experimentation are also taking aim at the military chaplaincy.  Many of these leftist radicals are calling for the ouster of anyone in a religious role who doesn't affirm the sexuality or identity of any soldier. "I believe the Army Chaplain Corps has failed to safeguard the wellbeing, dignity, and value of our LGBTQI+ soldiers," wrote Major David Evans in the Army Times. "A chaplain is not a government-paid missionary, and an individual chaplain's right to religious freedom cannot override any soldier's right to be valued and cared for."

It used to be that people who identified as LGBT had to hide their illicit sexual relationships in the military. Now, this administration thinks it's time for chaplains to hide theirs -- with God. "This is all about having a woke military," Lt. General (Ret.) Jerry Boykin said. "From the beginning of the chaplain's corps in our military -- which started all the way back in the Revolutionary War -- chaplains have never been asked as a policy of the Department of Defense or of the military to violate their own conscience or to compromise on fundamental issues of their faith, regardless of whether they were Jewish, Catholic, Protestant, or whatever they were. And now, because we're bringing in this Marxist theology, we're taking away the spiritual tools these men and women need to do their jobs.”

Just this past month, a group of nearly 40 leftist House Democrats introduced a piece of legislation that would stop the DOD from stationing military members with trans-identifying children in any state or country that doesn't give them access to mutilating surgery or hormone treatments. That would include places like Arkansas, where they've outlawed experimentation on minors. In other words, the Pentagon would let a son or daughter's LGBT preferences get in the way of a servicemember's deployment. How on earth does that improve military readiness?  Now the left wants to pay for service members’ surgeries for transitioning to their identified sex.  With all due respect and compassion towards these good folks, there are numerous serious psychological issues and instabilities that are typically associated with these tortured folks with gender dysphoria.  They have no business being a part of the military with such disqualifying issues, let alone having tax payers cough up the money for their surgeries as their units get ready to deploy.

Then there is the issue of Critical Race Theory (CRT) being shoved down the throats of military members.  Many on the left try to gaslight the unwoke who criticize CRT as if they were supporting racism.  There is a distinct difference between CRT and racism, however.  In a Slate interview published June 12, Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University and author of such racist tomes as How to Be An Antiracist, outlined critical race theory, which divides people into oppressors and the oppressed, and said he was “inspired” by the perspective and by individuals who have furthered it.  More objective observers say critical race theory casts whites as oppressors and minorities as their victims.

If one were to accept Kendi’s argument that America, and by extension, its armed forces are fundamentally racist, how does one expect that to increase morale and unit cohesion, let alone recruiting rates?  Kendi says the answer to previous racism is more racism. “The only remedy to past discrimination,” he says, “is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination.”

In typical leftist hyperbolic fashion, he wants severe punishments for even small acts he deems unacceptable. “What other people call racial microaggressions, I call racist abuse. And I call the zero-tolerance policies preventing and punishing these abusers what they are: antiracist.”

When the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, came to testify on the latest defense budget, a handful of Republicans took the opportunity to put the country's top general on the hot seat over the wildly unpopular move to teach CRT in the ranks, which starts with America's service academies.  Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) vehemently stated that Republicans aren't manufacturing this firestorm. "This isn't something we're raising. This came to me from cadets, from families, from soldiers with their alarm and their concern at how divisive this type of teaching is that is rooted in Marxism, that classifies people along class lines, an entire race of people as oppressor and oppressed."

Recently Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier was relieved of his command as commander of a U.S. Space Force unit for speaking the truth about critical race theory’s rapid inroads among America’s armed forces as he published a book entitled Irresistible Revolution: Marxism's Goal of Conquest & the Unmaking of the American Military.  For blowing the whistle on this pernicious anti-American ideology being promulgated in our military’s ranks, Lt. General Stephen Whiting removed Colonel Lohmeier from his command.  Imposing anti-American racial ideologies on our troops directly threatens our national security, by spreading ideas that undermine confidence in the principles underpinning our Constitution, trust in our system of government and traditional values that promote unity, cohesion and equality among service members. That’s classic CRT.  (And I highly recommend reading the excellent article at this link about CRT.)

According to Ibram Kendi, “in order to truly be antiracist, you also have to truly be anticapitalist.”  In other words, identity is the means; Marxism is the end.  These are the unspoken goals of CRT when it comes to fruition as Colonel Lohmeier was attempting to bring to light.

All of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines take an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution and all that it stands for. Instructing them that our Constitution, and the beliefs incorporated into it by the Founders, were meant to perpetuate white supremacy is reprehensible; it cries for urgent congressional examination and pushback. Yet that’s precisely what troops are being taught, according to Lohmeier.

Lohmeier described to radio host Steve Gruber the “intensive teaching that I heard at my base—that at the time the country ratified the United States Constitution, it codified white ­supremacy as the law of the land. If you want to disagree with that, then you start [being] labeled all manner of things, ­including racist.”

On another show, Lohmeier shared more concerns that motivated him to speak out, saying that “the diversity, inclusion and equity industry and the trainings we are receiving in the military” are further examples of Marxist ideas that included critical race theory.

Consider the Navy’s Professional Reading Program. It includes books that portray America as systemically racist and promotes the view that the Constitution was written to perpetuate white supremacy. That the Space Force has now relieved a unit commander for expressing his concerns about this type of education and training material within his service suggests this is no isolated case and more is to come.

In just five months since Biden's "election", the culture of our fighting force is changing quickly. Under Joe Biden, one of the last bastions of American patriotism is on a collision course with a radical Marxist agenda that isn't just threatening our servicemembers -- it's threatening America.  But then the left often associates American patriotism with racism.

The only reason this administration is so intent on teaching critical race theory, Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) insists, is so it can rip apart our military at the seams. "Our military's strength depends on the unity of our troops and the knowledge that America is a noble nation worth fighting for. Critical race theory teaches that race is a person's most important characteristic, and that America is an evil, oppressive place." Forcing commanders to preach that the country they're serving is racist has already led, as the far-Left hoped it would, to more good men and women leaving the service.

Retired Army Lt. General Jerry Boykin warned that the Pentagon is actually encouraging people to turn others in; to snitch on the men and women they serve with if they think they're an extremist (a conservative, in other words.)  And the sad thing about it is, Boykin went on, "all this is doing is driving a wedge between members of the military. And there's nothing more important on the battlefield -- not weapons, not the technology -- [than] the cohesion and the morale of those men and women who are out there fighting. They make the difference. That's how you win on the battlefield."

Seemingly inexplicably "They want to weaken our military," Boykin insisted. "Well, it doesn't make sense to you and me, but it does if you're a Marxist... It makes sense if you want to reduce the readiness of our military so that there is no propensity, no desire to use our military again." Marxists want a one-world government, he warned. And our troops are in their way.

If you’re going to promote such ideas which paint America as a racist republic that shouldn’t be defended but overthrown, why have a military at all, unless you’re planning to use it to stage a Communist revolution?

Senator, and veteran, Tom Cotton stated, “They should be focused on teaching about how to win real wars, not culture wars." In advancing race-baiting, divisive theories, the Biden administration has lost sight of the fact that the military has a critical mission, to fight and win wars. And America has major geopolitical rivals that would like nothing better than to undermine our ability to project force to defend our national interests. "I suspect if China and Russia, if they wanted to try to undermine unit morale and unit cohesion, they would probably not think of a much better strategy," Cotton pointed out.

“What happens if it harms unit cohesion and morale in our military? Then we literally are risking our freedom,” Cotton said. “That’s why it’s so important that the U.S. military’s priority should remain what it always has been—to fight and win real wars, not to get distracted by culture wars.”

“They don’t just play a kids’ game for money or sell sugary beverages. They are the institution that keeps us free and safe,” stated Cotton. “They make almost everything else possible in our country in protecting our way of life. So, it’s the most corrosive place where you can teach these small, specious doctrines.”

The military has always had issues, and it had its issues when I served in the 1980’s and early 90’s, but adding women in combatant roles, championing gay and transgender issues, squelching and punishing any detractors of LGBTQ lifestyles (including by the chaplaincy), and service-wide indoctrination and division via critical race theory are rapidly tearing apart the very fabric of our military.  Such divisions, if continued, WILL cause our military to be unable to respond and answer the call when our adversaries in the world take advantage of our weakness and act against us.  I can almost hear Earl Hanson concernedly and bitterly complaining once again, “God-damned new Navy!”