Things we won’t miss from the Biden DoD

By James Fitzpatrick
Real Clear Wire

The world is on fire. Syria is up for grabs. Israel has been at war dismantling Iranian proxies. Other Iranian proxies threaten shipping in the Persian Gulf. Russia (with some North Korean troops) and Ukraine are locked in a bloody stalemate. China has ratcheted up its belligerence, our ally South Korea appears to be leaderless, and we’ve had the bloodiest terrorist attack on the homeland in many years. Many of these blazes were kindled by the catastrophic American bugout from Afghanistan.

All this comes at a time when the American military is demoralized. The weakness we’ve projected abroad hasn’t gone unnoticed at home. Recruitment is at an all-time low. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs have been institutionalized in the force. Promotions seem to be based on the service member’s commitment to woke priorities rather than merit.

At the highest levels, accountability has gone missing. Nobody was fired for the Afghanistan fiasco. A year ago, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin was ill, incapacitated and on potent meds, and told nobody in the chain of command. He should have resigned in disgrace, but the reaction from the Oval Office amounted to “whatever.” Four years of this has eroded the warrior ethos necessary for cohesion, competence, and victory.

The military is desperately in need of change agents for good in the DoD to get our military back on track just as President Trump and his new Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, if confirmed, take charge.

On his first day in office, President Trump repealed Biden Executive Order 14035 which established procedures to advance DEI priorities across the federal workforce. Upon confirmation, Hegseth could build on this EO and remove DEI offices and policies from DoD, including eliminating DEI training and literature and abolishing racial quotas in the officer corps. Last year my organization, the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA), discovered that the U.S. Air Force has a “goal” of drastically reducing the number of white male officers in its ROTC program. The Air Force has been working on this goal since 2019, when 60 percent of ROTC officers were white. The eventual goal, to be accomplished in FY29, was to reduce the portion of white males to 43 percent.

This is madness. If quotas are not acceptable in other areas, why are they permissible when filling the ranks of leadership of the branches charged with protecting Americans?

Within the purview of DEI is the transgender ideology that flourished in the military under Biden, such as with the Air Force‘s taxpayer-funded Transgender Health Medical Evaluation Unit (THEMU). Not surprising, the service doesn’t want to talk about it. CASA was forced to sue the Air Force for materials related to the creation and implementation of the unit. But military brass can’t stonewall the commander in chief. President Trump has the opportunity to bring meaningful change in this area from the West Wing. Experimentation in our Armed Forces should be technological and tactical, not medical, sexual, or social.

DEI initiatives have riddled our military in recent years thanks to general officers who embraced them. The services contain ideologue generals who’ve sacrificed mission success for success in a soldier’s commitment to DEI and other Biden DoD priorities. Officers must be focused on service, unit readiness, cohesion, lethality, and family morale, not finding time for their next implicit bias training. And there should be no room in the Armed Forces for officers who think otherwise. CASA has made several FOIA requests for records on this front and plans to do more to expose these records in the coming year. The only “ism” that should be common to the leaders of young Americans is patriotism. From that flow the virtues of courage, competence and devotion to service and comrades.

Inevitably, critics will say that taking steps to address these issues amounts to inserting politics into the military. It is the opposite, especially considering the actions taken by the Biden administration. The Afghanistan withdrawal – a political sop to Biden’s leftwing base complete with a symbolic September 11 deadline – was known to be just that by his generals, yet none resigned in protest. And, as we all saw, that operation led to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members.

Further, President Trump has the opportunity to return military spending priorities to lethality and mission success instead of political causes, like climate change. Money appropriated for defense must be spent making our troops, weapons and technologies more lethal. The Biden administration used DoD resources to develop a “Climate Adaptation Plan” declaring climate change a major national security risk. CASA uncovered emails between Pentagon officials complaining how hard it was to finalize the plan with the Afghanistan distraction during August of 2021. They persisted and Austin signed the plan on September 1.

Drastic changes are needed to turn the Department of Defense around, get it away from woke nonsense, and return it to its core mission “to provide a lethal Joint Force to defend the security of our country and sustain American influence abroad.” President Trump, nominee for Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and the new leadership team at DoD have a serious task ahead to bring about this much needed change.

James Fitzpatrick is the director of the Center to Advance Security in America, a former official in the Trump 45 administration, and an Army veteran.