Military Leadership Has Broken Its Pact With the American People and Now a Price Will Be Paid

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

While there are lots of disturbing aspects of the Biden administration, perhaps one of the most has been the overt politicization of the military’s leadership. While that existed under Donald Trump, it was mostly kept under wraps until his exit from the presidency. Now, we are inundated with revelations of how overtly political the upper echelons of military leadership have become.

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As RedState reported yesterday, Major General Patrick Donahoe was on Twitter “clapping back” at a conservative for pointing out that suicides are a far greater threat to military members than COVID. The point was that lockdowns and overbearing mitigation hurt the mental wellness of soldiers and that it should be taken into account.

Instead of responding like an adult, Donahoe did this.

Of course, Gen. Mark Milley has become the poster boy for this kind of stuff. From his pushing for Critical Race Theory in the military to it coming to light that he was preparing for a Trump coup, it’s obvious he’s as far-left as it gets. He’s been flanked by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who has proclaimed “white supremacy” as the preeminent threat of our time while pushing racial essentialism.

Then there’s just the general amount of woke-ness being pushed within the armed forces, something that has shown itself via recruitment ad campaigns (see Tucker Carlson Causes a Great Triggering After Lambasting Our Woke Military, but He’s Dead On).

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All of this has combined to create the most politically compromised military in modern history. The question is where that leads. I would posit this: The military has broken its pact with the American people.

For most of the nation’s existence, a bargain between Americans and the leaders of our military existed. Namely, we would ignore their immense failures as long as they stayed apolitical and remained singularly focused on their one job, which I’ve been told is winning wars. Despite the absolute disasters that were our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, for example, the military’s leadership class largely escaped scrutiny. In fact, it was often seen as out of bounds to criticize anyone with a star on their helmet precisely because we were assured they were apolitical.

That bargain has been willingly blown up by the General-class in order to push left-wing domestic priorities. While the transformation began under Trump, it has become untenable under Biden. Because of that short-sighted decision by the nation’s top military brass, the country is now going to pay the price. Our last ostensibly apolitical institution is now no more trustworthy than Congress. It didn’t have to be this way, and what exactly was gained by going down this path? That’s a question Milley and others would have to answer.

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What I do know is that it’s unhealthy to have literally every aspect of the federal-level government, including the armed forces, so overtly politicized. It was a good thing when most Americans could rally around the military and its leadership, trusting that some unelected General wasn’t going to tell you that you are racist for not accepting CRT or demand you wear a mask. That comfort zone, which produced so much unity in the country over the last several centuries, is gone. And until there are serious reforms at the top levels of the military, it won’t return.

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