Over the last month, one of the worst military disasters of the last several decades played out on the world stage. The results of that include 13 dead members of the US military and hundreds of Americans left behind in Afghanistan, as Al-Qaeda and ISIS settle in for a resurgence.

And while the buck ultimately stops with Joe Biden, whose vapidity has become legendary, he’s hardly the only villain of the last 20 years that led us to this point. The Pentagon, from the appointed positions to the careerists, have continually failed up while turning a blind eye to corruption and incompetence.

The fall of Afghanistan was simply the latest example propagated by a military leadership more concerned with domestic woke-ism than actually winning wars. And as if to purposely thrash what little credibility may have been retained, the Pentagon has shifted its focus away from trapped Americans overseas to this.

From ⁦@DepSecDef⁩ tonight: “Racial disparities in the military justice system have been a problem for far too long. We know it, and we are going to work hard to fix it.” https://t.co/HQ1f0vs4S0

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) September 1, 2021

That op-ed is written by Kathleen Hicks, the Deputy Secretary of Defense. In a time when our foreign policy is in shambles, the second most powerful person at the Pentagon is submitting articles to The Hill on how racial disparity is a top issue for the US military. It’s enough to make one’s jaw drop.

On the merits, Hicks’ piece provides precious little evidence for her contention. Like most left-wingers, she relies on the fallacy that if more black people end up in court proceedings, it must be due to racist inequality and not simply the fact that certain people decided to commit certain crimes.

Yet, the problems with this go beyond disagreements over core causes. In the midst of the current foreign policy disaster, partially brought about by decades of corruption and incompetence within the military, the Pentagon decided now is the time to virtue signal about racial justice? We are an unserious country led by unserious people.

All of this folds into what I believe is the greater issue regarding our armed forces. People like Lloyd Austin and Kathleen Hicks don’t see fighting men and women as assets to win wars with. Rather, they see them as subjects to be socially experimented on. The military ostensibly exists to break things and punish our enemies, but in reality, it exists to make left-wing ideologues feel really good about themselves.

This is why we keep losing wars. It’s not because our operators aren’t deadly and our aviators aren’t the best. It’s because the top brass and the appointments that command them have become obsessed with putting domestic politics over military readiness and capability. That’s not only a waste of resources — it’s dangerous.