As readiness and global standing erode, Biden Pentagon remains fixated on woke evangelizing

In recent years, the U.S. military has abandoned billions of dollars' worth of arms in a frantic flight from Afghanistan, depleted the nation's stockpile of Javelins through transfers of the anti-tank missiles to Ukraine, and exacerbated manpower shortages through a draconian COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Yet, even amid erosion in readiness and U.S. global standing, the Biden Pentagon has remained fixated on woke evangelizing, squandering time and resources on equity training, LGBTQ education and racial bias classes for service members — even pushing such training on the children who attend schools run by DOD. 

The mounting reports of woke inroads into military training and education have elicited increasingly vocal concerns from veterans.

After the Navy Times published a commentary piece asking veterans to help boost recruitment, the Military Times reported receiving "hundreds of emails" from vets saying they would refuse to get involved because of wokeness in the military. 

"Their reasons varied, but most said wokeness is to blame," according to the story. "They accused the military of becoming so 'political,' or such a 'social experiment,' that even proud veterans wouldn’t recommend service.

"'I'll be blunt. I wouldn't encourage anyone to join today's armed forces and I discouraged both of my sons from considering serving,' wrote Peter Demas, who described himself as a third-generation veteran. 'America's military leaders have sold out the Services for their own advancement and reflect all the poorest qualities of civilian "leadership" from whom they accepted thirty pieces of silver; instead of being the nation's repository of integrity and moral courage, they have become more political than the political animals they grovel before.'"

In November 2021, GOP Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) joined ranking member Senator Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and 10 other Republican members of the Senate Armed Services Committee in writing a letter to Gen. Mark Milley,  the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, seeking details about the cost and effectiveness of the White House's social agenda for the military, the Magnolia Tribune reported. 

Milley wrote back several months later to report that service members had spent a total of 5,889,082 man-hours on an extremism "stand-down" in February 2021 and on "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion" training, including critical race theory, since Biden assumed office. Over 1,000 hours were spent on coordinating the DOD's Climate Adaptation Plan, he added.

In late 2022, the Claremont Institute released a report entitled "Grooming Future Revolutionaries," in which it revealed how educators at DOD schools encourage students to cut their parents out of the educational loop. 

"The American military is peddling critical race theory, white shaming, queer theory, and left-wing activism to children in its K–12 military schools," wrote coauthors Ryan P. Williams and Scott Yenor. 

"Teachers try to undermine the trust students have in their parents through confidential communication and sharing naughty secrets that teachers will treat in a nonjudgmental way," they explained.

"The new military education aims to detach military brats from their families and their country, all the better to make them global citizens," they found. "It seeks to disrupt stable sexual identities. This education undermines justice, truth, and the American way of life."

Meanwhile, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., has recently begun "enacting changes to reflect diversity through the initiatives of the Diversity and Inclusion Task Force," according to CriticalRace.org's CRT in education tracker.

"USAF academy requires all cadets and cadet candidates to complete a course on 'Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Students,'" the site reports. "USAF also requires incoming cadets to watch a video promoting BLM. A certificate in Diversity and Inclusion is offered in addition to other DEI programs and resources."

In February 2023, the conservative Center for Military Readiness highlighted six major changes the Biden Pentagon has made to accommodate transgenders, which include altering vocabulary in accordance with transgender ideology and allowing cross-dressing. 

"In summary," according to the think tank, "the Biden policy: 

1.  Changes official DoD vocabulary to reflect transgender ideology

2.  Specifically involves the military service academies and ROTC (contract) programs

3.  Holds commanders directly responsible for all alleged 'biases against transgender individuals'

4.  Allows cross-dressing and other 'transitioning' behaviors on-base as well as off-base

5.  Allows 'de-transition' procedures if costly treatments do not resolve gender dysphoria

6.  Restricts collection and disclosure of data on 'incidents of harmful behaviors' involving sexual orientation and transgender persons." 

In March, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) issued a blistering statement about a 2021 "Drag Queen Story Time" event held at Malmstrom Air Force Base. 

“The news of Malmstrom Air Force Base hosting a drag queen story hour for children is infuriating," said Daines. "The mission of the Department of Defense is to 'provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation's security.' It is impossible to see how this event at Malmstrom helps the military fulfill its mission rather than a woke agenda. In fact, this and events like it at our military bases around the country and world further erodes the credibility of one of our countrys most important institutions. 

"At a time when Americans' confidence in our military and its leadership is suffering and recruiting challenges are approaching a critical stage, the Department of Defense should be doing everything in its power to make our military a source of honor for our country.

"The Biden administration must reverse course immediately, abandon the woke agenda and focus on the mission at hand and provide a full accounting from Defense Secretary Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Milley of how and why these events were allowed to take place and whether taxpayer funding was used."  Also in March, The Center Square reported West Point cadets were receiving presentations that discouraged them from using "gendered language" terms like "mom" and "dad" and being lectured at length on "white privilege." 

Just The News reached out to the Department of Defense for comment but did not receive a reply. 

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