This past week alone, the Biden administration lost a state-of-the-art, $100 million jet fighter for 28 hours and was forced to resort to asking the American public to help them find it. One could imagine pictures of the jet on milk cartons across the southeast. Simultaneously, the Biden administration gifted Iran, the largest state sponsor of terror across the globe, with $6 billion in immediate assets to continue their stated mission of exterminating Israel and killing Americans and western allies. Not so ironically, with cash in hand, Iran immediately expelled the United Nation’s nuclear inspectors there to keep an eye on the regime. Money received, screw you. This week alone, Biden gave an almost imperceptible speech to the U.N. about the promise of more support to Ukraine in the form of billions. This week alone.
We are not a serious nation; we have evolved history’s greatest fighting force into an institution run by political leftists that aren’t serious unless it relates to pushing radical social change across all the services. Taxpayer-funded sex change operations, drag queen performances for the children of military parents, Critical Race Theory in the curriculums of West Point, Annapolis, and Colorado Springs, to name a few. We have become a nation that prefers our military forces to be social Petri dishes for human engineering and change, not lethal, principled, and successful warfighters. Our present recruiting, retention, and unit morale across all units directly reflects it. And I’ve had enough.
I’m a Cold War warrior, mostly. I did see bullets flying at me in places like Grenada, Bosnia, and Central Africa. My job was to project military force all over the globe and do so with the American flag on my shoulder. You know, back when a young man or woman could enlist and respect his or her commander-in-chief. I know this: we didn’t lose jets and we didn’t coddle our enemies, the Soviet Union, or terrorists. We sure as hell didn’t project weakness on the international stage. Once, for example, when asked by a senior official what his plan was to deal with the Soviet Union, President Reagan answered, “How about this? We win, they lose.”
I enlisted in the United States Air Force in 1981 primarily because of Ronald Reagan. A recent college grad and then in graduate school, I was sickened by Jimmy Carter’s presidency and the damage he inflicted on our nation and our military. At the time, I was certainly no hawk, I was a long-haired grad student studying economics at Virginia Tech, planning on law school, and enjoying a beverage or three. I once even marched against nuclear weapons in D.C. with hundreds of others. (Ironically, I would carry the “nuclear football” just 18 years later).
I just knew something was wrong and, as a nation, we could do better. When Reagan was elected in 1980, I felt a new calling. My father was a career Air Force officer and a pilot, and, at that point, I chose to follow his path. It felt right. America was experiencing a resurgence of national pride and patriotism in the wake of Carter, and I wanted to play too.
Decades later, retired from the military and writing, I’m left with this -- we have Joe Biden and a military establishment that places political victories over war victories. Our priorities are whacked out. We haven’t won a war since WWII and we, corporately, don’t seem too worried about it. We have senior leadership, from the SecDef on down, promoting pronouns, hosting drag queen shows for children, and ramming Critical Race Theory down the throats of active duty, reserve, and academy cadet forces.
My esteemed colleague at www.townhall.com, retired Army Colonel Kurt Schlichter, recently wrote a brilliant summary of his military service and I can’t agree more. In it, he asks “…And now I just need to know if I was a sucker for believing all that Constitution and freedom stuff when I raised my right hand? I know a lot of fellow vets who are asking the same question.”
Here's what this vet thinks: the D.C. Swamp, or as Tucker Carlson calls it, “permanent Washington,” has radically evolved the world’s greatest, and most humane, fighting force into just another screwed-up political institution. When I enlisted, I was proud, motivated, and excited to serve. We had a mission, we had impeccable training, and yes, we had leaders…real leaders.
Today? I would not sign that paper nor could I in good conscience recommend military service to young men and women. I’ve expressed that to my adult children and they know I mean it. If you are currently serving, I will do everything in my power to support you. I feel for you. I know your job and I know you’re not getting the leadership, resources, and equipment you need. We have your back.
Is military service still the most revered American institution? Yes, but less and less so. Just know this: you are representing the greatest democratic republic in the history of man, you are representing an ideal that is God-breathed, and you are serving the freedom and liberties, not only of your fellow citizens but citizens of the world.
America’s military will bounce back because the cause is just. Leadership will return and we will expel the politicized leadership that forces you to endure mind-numbing cultural experiments, at a time when you just want to focus on your job, do it well, and come home to your family. Right now, you are being led by incompetence and political ambition. That cannot and will not last.
Your oath never expires and neither does mine. “This we will defend,” “Semper Fi,” “Not self, but country,” “Fly, Fight, Win,” and “Semper Paratus.” The cavalry is coming…hang in there.
