OPINION:
Military recruitment is higher than it has been in 15 years. Young Americans have a renewed willingness to serve for a simple reason: President Trump replaced the rainbow flag flying over the Pentagon with the American flag.
“We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. No more pronouns. No more climate change obsession. No more emergency vaccine mandates. No more dudes in dresses,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Tuesday speech to the special operations community.
His remarks were buoyed by a freshly drafted Supreme Court order allowing the president to continue dismantling the previous administration’s radical gender ideology policies. Unless the high court issues a final decision saying otherwise, the armed services may discharge members with gender dysphoria.
In a rare twist, the high court rebuff wasn’t directed at any of the 200 Democratic activists who identify as federal judges and spend their days devising ways to spoil presidential policymaking. This rebuke went to U.S. District Judge Benjamin Settle, an appointee of President George W. Bush.
His honor thinks Mr. Trump’s ban on transgender military service is unfair, despite the Defense Department’s determination that accommodating individuals confused about basic biological facts reduces readiness.
“The government does not provide any evidence that any of these concerns materialized during the past years of open transgender service,” Judge Settle opined, substituting his judgment for that of the commander in chief. His honor even endorsed the left’s argument that “penalizing only transgender service members for expressing a gender identity different from their birth sex” is a First Amendment violation.
Those who seek to impose social change on the public often wrap themselves in grand constitutional justifications. Here, the objective is to normalize aberrant behavior and force taxpayers to continue paying for cosmetic surgeries for men who think they are women and women who believe they are men.
It’s a swindle, and everyone knows it. That’s why morale tanked under Democratic administrations. Military leadership watered down standards and promoted individuals based on identity quotas. Recruits had to salute some women and call them “sir” and refer to some male officers as “she.”
This isn’t what they signed up for. “They want to be in disciplined formations that value them, not for immutable differences, not for the color of our skin or gender, but because of honor and integrity and grit and patriotism,” Mr. Hegseth said.
The Pentagon chief also announced a culling of the senior officer ranks. During World War II, 17 four- and five-star generals and admirals led a force four times larger than our current military to victory in a global clash.
Today’s rank inflation is so out of control that the Navy fields more admirals than warships. On Monday, the defense secretary ordered a reduction in the number of flag officers by “at least” 20%, easing budgetary burdens while streamlining the command structure.
These changes will make our fighting forces more lethal. Sailors, soldiers, Marines and airmen won’t be distracted by political correctness. They can train to be aggressive instead of training to avoid microaggressions.
They will conduct missions in ships powered by nuclear reactors, tanks that burn diesel and planes that run on jet fuel. They won’t have to set up solar panels and windmills on the battlefield while waiting to recharge.
If Mr. Trump holds to his “no new wars” policy, we won’t need to deploy our troops in anger. Once enemies notice our renewed seriousness, they won’t even risk a conflict.
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