In today's entry in the "Government Spending Money on Stupid Things" Sweepstakes, we have this: The Department of Defense has awarded a potentially $2.5 million contract to the Hawaiian company Akahi Associates, LLC for "Transgender Health Medical Evaluation Unit Services." The initial disbursement is for an oddly-specific $464,164.96; the balance is listed as "Potential Award Amount."
Here is the relevant section of the DoD's "Contract to Akaha Ingenesis:"
Akahi Associates is a Honolulu-based healthcare company.
It is unclear how "Transgender Health Medical Evaluation Unit Services" will increase readiness or the war-fighting ability of our armed forces, and it is even more unclear why the federal government sees fit to drop $2.5 million -- or even $464,164.96 -- on it.
This award comes at a time when things in the Pacific are, to put it mildly, tense. China is facing major crises in demographics and its economy, and the Chinese military is becoming increasingly belligerent. Some recent incidents documented here at RedState include:
- Chinese warships trailing their coats down the coast of Alaska
- 68 Chinese aircraft encroaching on Taiwan's airspace
- China blaming the U.S. for a near-miss between American, and Chinese warships
Add to that the liability presented by our own national leadership, which is increasingly befuddled and directionless.
Our own country's massive debt problems aside, this isn't something that should be happening. The military has one purpose: To kill people and break things. More than any other institution in the country, more than any other institution in history, a military force must place mission above all other considerations, even (maybe especially) if that mission requirement causes some hand-wringing by the lace-panty types in Washington, San Francisco, or Portland. Readiness is vital to that; training to build skill at war-fighting is another.
This obscene waste of taxpayer dollars enhances neither of those things.
Watch this, and imagine how the day of days this veteran describes would go, if the U.S. military in 1944 was concerned with "Diversity, Inclusion and Equity" or transgender health care, instead of training and arming to crush Hitler's army.
Think about that for a moment. These men - and yes, they were men - were told not to stop and help any wounded comrades. To leave them for the Army medics in follow-on waves. If necessary, to let them die, because the mission was more important than any one man's life. These are the men who stormed into North Africa, France, Belgium, Holland, and eventually Germany, where they whipped the Wehrmacht for good and all.
We don't have that kind of military anymore.
Russia knows this. China knows this. They look at the White House and see weakness. They look at our military and see wokeness over mission capability at the highest levels. They see general and flag officers who are largely soft-shelled invertebrates.
The Pacific is again the crisis point, to a greater degree than it has been since 1941. Our allies know this as well. Taiwan has been preparing for an eventual confrontation for a couple of generations now. Also, I wouldn’t rule out Japan getting involved in any Sino-Taiwanese conflict, as they are surely savvy enough to know they’d be next on the chopping block if China got increasingly frisky about building some kind of new Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. As evidence of this, note that for the last few years, Japan has been quietly dialing the Self-Defense Force in. Now, our Pentagon is handing out millions for transgender services.
Our Western Pacific allies don’t trust us anymore. Frankly, they shouldn’t. I wouldn’t bet a plugged nickel on the Biden Administration having their backs if anything went sideways.
There's a simple answer to all this if we ever have a National Command Authority with the stones to implement it: If any service member is permanently non-deployable, for any reason, they are discharged. If they are non-deployable for reasons of a service-connected injury or illness, they get a pension. If they are non-deployable through other, personal reasons, they are back on the block with a general discharge. The military forces, all of them, need to return to their sole legitimate purpose: To close with and destroy the enemy by fire, maneuver, and shock effect. Anything that moves them closer to that goal is good. Anything that moves them away from that goal is bad. It's that simple.
Mission first. Always mission first.
