The Biden administration’s reaction to being criticized for playing identity politics with the military has been to play identity politics with the military. Are you concerned about our military readiness now that its purpose has been redefined to focus on the national security threats emerging from climate change, white privilege, and abortion bans? Please allow the man claiming to be a woman to explain why you’re undermining military readiness.
As assistant secretary of defense for readiness, Shawn Skelly oversees military preparedness for warfighting, including training programs, equipment safety and munitions supplies.
And Skelly has a message for Republicans accusing the Department of Defense of promoting diversity and inclusion in the armed forces at the expense of military readiness: their campaign is what’s hurting the military’s warfighting capabilities.
“If you want to be ready, then you have to ensure that everybody that is in your force can be their best selves and contribute as a member of a team and be seen as valuable,” said Skelly, speaking at the Pentagon in his first in-depth interview since taking the job in 2021.
He is the DoD’s highest-ranking openly transgender official, and the second to hold an office that requires Senate confirmation. The first was Rachel Levine, who serves as assistant secretary of health.
Skelly’s appointment was welcomed as a powerful signal of support by transgender troops now serving openly since President Joe Biden overturned a Trump-era ban on trans service members.
But Republicans in Congress are looking to roll back those changes through proposed legislation to ban transgender people from serving in the military.
It’s part of a larger push by some Republican lawmakers who argue that personnel policies like diversity trainings, racial justice education and events like a recent drag show on a military base alienate some potential recruits and distract from the forces’ main mission: fighting wars and protecting the homefront.
Republican lawmakers who say DoD’s diversity push is hurting readiness have got it backward, Skelly said. When a team is in crisis, the trust between team members is what makes or breaks the mission.
“It’s all about small unit cohesion,” he said, arguing that “ostracizing anybody” makes that more difficult.
The military can’t afford to alienate anyone… except the straight white religious men and anyone who won’t get vaccinated. The military must be turned upside down to accommodate the tiny percent of the population that suffers from a mental illness that causes it to believe that it’s actually a member of the opposite gender.
Failing to let men shower with women would undermine “military readiness” and “unit cohesion”, but forcing thousands of unvaccinated personnel out doesn’t undermine anything.
Ibram X Kendi fanboys must be catered to with daily doses of racism, but if you refuse to confess your white privilege, you must be punished.
It’s all about unit cohesion. The units being those of the Left.
Skelly said he regularly speaks with members of “Gen Z” who express reservations about serving in the military because they fear they or their friends won’t be treated with respect.
“I don’t know what ‘wokeism’ is, it’s not a defined term,” he said. But “If people understand that they’re not going to get a fair shake, because they come from a specific ethnic origin, or based on their identity, or based on who they love, we are going to be worse off because not enough Americans are going to want to be a part of the U.S. military.”
But the traditional religious people who don’t want to be part of the military because it is all about leftist values and virtue signaling, that’s just fine. It’s not like there’s a catastrophic recruiting crisis on, is there?
The military can’t afford to alienate anyone except its core demographic: traditional white men.
But hey, if you doubt the military’s commitment to readiness, just talk to the dude in the skirt.
More historical trivia: the “small unit cohesion” thing came from statistical studies conducted during WW2 by psychologists for the army (or something like that, I’m just winging it from memory). They were surprised that that turned out to be the most important factor.
Deviants were not an issue during that period either. It was treated the way it is meant to be, as mental disorders
Believe it was SLA Marshall that got credit for identifying this factor in cohesion after conducting many interviews,.
Thanks! I thought it was SLA Marshall but I couldn’t remember for sure.
Call me crazy but I don’t think you get unit cohesion and combat effectiveness by instructing that some members of the unit are irredeemable oppressors and other members are perpetual victims of them. But I could be wrong. That’s for sure.
The best way to achieve military readiness is by treating the majority of your personnel like garbage. It worked for the Russians which if they won so many wars.
Excellent and sad observation. Love your work, man.
Thank you J
Hmm, that photo certainly makes my loins tingle.
And about percentages. Back in the 80s, we were fed a line of bull from gay activists that “20% of you are us!” 1 out of 5? Really? From what I read, the actual number is somewhere between 2-4%. And the number for transgenders has got to be much lower than that.
If you groom enough kids, you can get to 20%.
I stood in a US NAVY Reserve Center in San Diego wherein Wade Sanders who served as Clinton’s Deputy Assistant United States Secretary of the Navy for Reserve Affairs told us that 1 IN 3 of us were actually gay AND those that did not support the gay movement would have issues in our career. I yelled out the word Bullsh-T_regarding teh 1 in 3 lie, and was verbally reprimanded that very day by my new CO (by direction). My FitRep also reflected a downturn for “judgment.” Turned out the new CO was a butt buddy of Sanders. No, not kidding.
Sanders was later charged with possession of massive child pornography and had a fascination with child sex as do many gay men.
I would expect as much, given the rank stupidity and unreality of the response you got.
“…“If you want to be ready, then you have to ensure that everybody that is in your force can be their best selves …”
And that, in a nutshell, is the problem. We don’t need unqualified, fat, lazy, dumb soldiers being their best selves because those soldiers are still not as capable as a well-qualified, properly trained soldier. In other words, the ones who are being forced out or aren’t signing up anymore because of the woke nonsense.
It will be hard trying to coordinate your dress pumps with your casual ballet flats all with your fatigues.
True. Wokes want to be their ‘best selves’. That’s for Oprah, not the Army.
When I was in the Army we had one color and one group. We were all green and we were all Americans. There was no other diversity required or allowed
Nancy Pelosi: ‘Extremists Target Trans People With Hateful Laws’
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) sent out a tweet on March 31 to celebrate “International Transgender Day of Visibility” and condemn those whom she said “target trans people with hateful laws.”
“On #TransDayOfVisibility, it is with pride I join in declaring: we see you, we’re with you—and we won’t rest until you enjoy the love & safety you deserve,” Pelosi said in her tweet.
“As extremists target trans people with hateful laws, let us work for a future free of fear, violence and discrimination,” Pelosi said.
Says the woman whose husband was caught in his underwear with an ‘intruder’ wielding a hammer in her foyer.
It’s hard to comprehend what this country has turned into. We are a disgrace.
This tranny thing is not just relegated to the military. My former police dept I worked at hired a man who dressed as a woman.
I’ll never forget the day I arrested this juvenile and transported him to the juvenile detention center. As I was standing in the holding area, going over my probable cause affidavit, another officer came up to me and asked what I had? I was still looking at my paperwork making sure it was free of any errors, as I started to respond. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a blonde haired officer with red lipstick on. Then I looked at his arms and they were vascular and muscled. I thought who is this woman officer? Then I gave her/him my full attention and saw it was a trans person, or a man pretending to be a female. All male characteristics, but wearing a blonde wig, lipstick and make up.
I then just ignored this individual. He/she got the message. Absolute joke. The arrestee’s had a good laugh though, as they got to witness the clown show.
This is another example of what happens when the mentally ill, like this man, Skelly, are allowed to run the asylum.
Terrifying to think our military is becoming unfit – mentally, physically, emotionally and morally to protect this country from foreign attacks ! We are being destroyed from within, not sure we can survive 2 more years of current Democrat warfare!
This is more proof that being woke is more important than being combat ready in the DOD
The military has one purpose: to kill people and break things or to prevent the same. As a veteran this administration scares the hell out of me. They act like we are invincible and all our high tech gadgets can win any war.
If this continues I’m afraid that the US civilian population is going to get a very rude awakening. One day we will go into a real battle, something akin to WW2 and we will get chased off that battlefield bloodied, being unable to even regroup. Why? Because we aren’t training to win wars, we are training to not offend anyone!
If this doesn’t change very quickly the next war will turn nuclear very quickly as we won’t be able to stay on the battlefield. Our troops are going to wind up hating each other and the ability to be a cohesive fight foce will be gone.
Our generals are fake warriors and leading us to ruin.
Same sex marriage – 2015 – was the beginning of the unraveling of this country. Antonio Gramsci proved the most prescient Marxist of all.