“To Win Our Nation’s Wars”?

“…The 248-year-old institution that this country depends upon to fight and win our wars has lost its focus, which is, “to win our nation’s wars.”  Preparing to do that is one of the most complex tasks on earth.  There is no profession more complex, more dangerous, or more crucial to the country’s survival than the United States Army. But its focus on “woke” social solutions has diluted the necessary focus on that duty.

The Army has thousands of magnificent and highly skilled officers and enlisted men and women who perform continuously at the highest levels.  Yet, as German General Erwin Rommel said of the British after he captured Tobruk, they are “lions commanded by donkeys.”  Today’s donkeys are officers and civilians in the highest levels of the current administration, up to and including the Commander in Chief, Joseph R. Biden and a Secretary of the Army who wants to reduce recruiting from families with a tradition of service because she fears a “warrior caste.”  Donkeys indeed. And they set the tone for all their subordinates in the Army.

The latest display of the donkeys’ madness is an article on the Army’s official website, lauding another man who claims to be a woman.

The first sentence of the article accompanying the photo pronounces that “Coming out as a transgender female saved Maj. Rachel Jones’ life.” It goes on to describe how an in-the-closet Jones “lived every day deeply depressed and suicidal.”  After President Joe Biden lifted the prior ban on transgenders in the military, “Jones was finally able to come out publicly as transgender.”  The Army’s article does not state that Jones had any type of so-called “gender affirming surgery,” so presumably “coming out” merely means that he announced that he now prefers to be known as “she.”  This allows “her” to “live her truth” and be “so much more comfortable with myself.”  The article claims that any thoughts of suicide are now a thing of the past.  It does not explain how an obviously unstable Jones managed to remain in the Army and get promoted to major.  Nor does it mention the suicide rate among transgenders who have “come out” or had the life-altering surgery, such as the 30+ year study that concluded that “Ten to 15 years after surgical reassignment, the suicide rate of those who had undergone sex-reassignment surgery rose to 20 times that of comparable peers.”

Now, this author’s quarrel is not with MAJ Jones, who obviously is a person in need of help.  No responsible person wishes him or any other human being to suffer depression to the point of potential suicide.  No, the proper quarrel is with the donkeys leading the Army who create the command climate that tells subordinates that, in the words of West Point’s Battalion Orders in 1820, Jones is a soldier to be “venerated and emulated.” The article is correct in saying that it is “important for Soldiers and civilians to support their peers by watching for depressive or suicidal warning signs and changes in behavior.” But from that proposition it does not follow that the U.S. Army should hold Jones up as a military model to be admired and emulated, as the Army’s article has done…”