Misplaced Biden Priorities in the Dept of Defense

Willful destruction of US national security

The new woke military.

On 20 January 2021, Joe Biden swore the following oath before God and the world to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." From Article II of the US Constitution: “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States.”

Defense of the Constitution of course includes defense of the country. The Founders probably thought that “national defense” was implicit in the Executive’s duties and responsibilities and thus did not call that phrase out specifically. After all, a war had just been fought and won with the British to win America’s independence. Without “national defense” (later, “national security”), the country would cease to exist over time.

Since his inauguration, Biden has demonstrated through direct actions that he has essentially abrogated his responsibilities for securing America’s national security/defense. Consider these actions, all of which have made America much weaker:

1. The botched Afghanistan withdrawal that left tens of billions of dollars of US military equipment behind. The Taliban are happily transferring some of that gear to terrorists in the region and are considering selling some to the Russians. There has been rampant speculation that the communist Chinese have gained access to some of the equipment for the purposes of studying capabilities and reverse-engineering them for incorporation into the inventory of People’s Republican Army at some point in the future. Lastly, no one in the Biden administration has been held fired, demoted, or otherwise held accountable for the debacle.

2. The wide-open US-Mexican border. Without secure borders and tightly controlled immigration, there is no US national security. Certainly not when criminals, would-be terrorists, narco-traffickers, human traffickers, gang-bangers, and other ne’er-do-wells are free to enter America without fear of incarceration or deportation. Estimates of nearly 6 million illegal aliens have streamed across the border since Biden reversed the Trump administration’s immigration policies in one of his first actions. Breitbart reported last October that there have been “5.5 million encounters” along the border, but no one knows how many people slipped through undetected. The Biden administration is even leveraging UN dollars to “pre-legalize” illegal immigrants before they enter the US, as reported by the Center for Immigration Studies. Fentanyl-related deaths in the US have increased to an average of 100,000 per year due to cartel-provided access to the drug (the drug and its precursors are manufactured in China).

3. The Chinese balloon caper. The Chinese balloon story first broke on 2 February when the Billings Gazette exposed the Biden administration's political gamble to ignore the balloon's intrusion into US airspace (a direct violation of US sovereignty). Speculation is rampant about the balloon’s mission payload: surveillance (PHOTINT, multi-INT, etc.), a simple test-run for other types of balloon missions, collecting data on US surveillance and communications systems, and a psychological warfare mission. The latter involves testing our resolve, showing the world that China “owns” Washington, exposing the weakness of the current administration in the face of foreign pressure, psychologically conditioning Americans to "eventual Chinese hegemony," etc. The most likely mission was surveillance, and giving that Chinese balloon free access to traverse the continental US to collect data on US bases is just the latest indication that Biden et al could care less about US national security. Consider the list of bases that were doubtless surveilled by the sensors on that balloon, as listed here. The Biden administration allowed that balloon free access for close surveillance of those facilities. The US response to the balloon was as weak as weak could possibly be. That it was allowed to collect data over ICBM silos and other sensitive installations with impunity is unconscionable.

None of the above actions enhance US national security. Quite the contrary! But perhaps the most insidious threat to US national security has been the directed implementation of LGBTQI-related policies throughout the Dept of Defense.

The process began when Biden signed his “Executive Order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation” on his very first day as president (posted here). The EO directed all federal agencies to end sexual discrimination on the basis of “gender identity” or sexual orientation – in short, to codify what was previously understood to be sexual dysphoria and mental disorders.

The Dept of Defense dutifully complied to the extent that LGBTQI-related policies have now transcended the importance of military readiness and combat readiness as “job number one” throughout the services. The policies have wrought havoc in unit good order and discipline, caused division in the ranks, and reallocated scarce training resources away from combat-related team training.

Elaine Donnelly’s Center for Military Readiness has been monitoring US military readiness since 1993. Its mission statement: “The Center for Military Readiness is an independent, non-partisan, public policy organization with a unique mission: reporting on and analyzing military/social issues.  CMR promotes high standards and sound priorities in the making of military personnel policies and takes the lead in defending elements of military culture that are essential for morale and readiness in the All-Volunteer Force.”

The Center recently conducted a comparison of the 2016 Barack Obama/Ashton Carter transgender policy to the transgender policies of Joe Biden/Lloyd Austin. The shocking results of Biden transgender policy incrementalism from a CMR press release include:

• Changes made to official DoD vocabulary to reflect transgender ideology

• The specific involvement of the military service academies and ROTC programs at civilian universities in what amounts to the grooming of aspiring military officers

• Directives to hold commanders directly responsible for all alleged “biases against transgender individuals”

• Directives that permit cross-dressing and other “transitioning” behaviors both on-base and off-base 

• Directives that enable “de-transition” procedures if costly treatments do not resolve gender dysphoria

• Restrictions on the collection and disclosure of data on “incidents of harmful behaviors” involving sexual orientation and transgender persons.  

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

The Dept of Defense’s actions cited above indicate the real national security priority of the Biden administration – to inflict woke ideology and personnel policies throughout the Department, including in frontline combat units. None of these measures enhance national security; to the contrary, they instill divisiveness in the ranks, create problems with the military chain of command, and detract from combat effectiveness and military readiness in general by forcing people with strong religious values to compromise their principles and condone sexual dysphoria in the ranks.

The policies are of-a-piece with other Biden policies implemented and actions taken that have degraded US national security since January 2021 and must be reversed in a future Republican presidency to restore unit cohesion and improve readiness throughout DoD.

The end.