Question: What does the above photograph of Admiral Rachel Levine inspire? I mean, other than a gag reflex. What if you are a standard issue radical Islamist nut-job scanning the news from your squalid little hovel somewhere in Lower East Crapistan and you see a photo of Admiral Levine along with various American military troops who look like a cross between a Milton Berle-in drag comedy sketch and Miss Piggy? Do you keep your head low to avoid being walloped by an errant container of blush or an intercontinental flat iron, or do you dust off those old plans to go hunting for fresh infidels to rape and slaughter?
Perhaps it's time to take a closer look at the tired old trope that "Diversity is our strength," and realize that while it worked out great on Noah's Ark, it would otherwise wreck a great many human endeavors. Would it work for the NBA? Do we need more obese hairy dudes with bad knees in the National Ballet Company? Granted, it would add an entirely new dimension to "The Nutcracker," but is that really the point of ballet? Does the NFL need a defensive line that looks like a school board, or quarterbacks who look like Dylan Mulvaney? Was Aurora, Colorado, strengthened by an influx of uninvited Venezuelan gang members who took over whole apartment complexes and terrorized residents? I'd venture to say that the answer to the above questions is a resounding No!
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has apparently reached the same conclusion with respect to America's armed forces. Just as individual expression makes for a rather poor orchestral performance, a cacophony of military members who range from the physically fit to the morbidly obese and from the highest of military standards to a motley and shaggy collection of gender bending eccentricities will constitute something less than an intimidating deterrent force.
General George S. Patton described the military's mission as one in which our warriors, "Attack rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, without rest, however tired and hungry you may be, the enemy will be more tired, more hungry. Keep punching." It was that ethos that spurred American military forces to decisive victory over powerful foes on opposite sides of the globe. Contrast General Patton's words with those of retired general and former secretary of defense Lloyd Austin, who said, "I would also say diversity, equity and inclusion is important to this military now and it will be in the future," adding, "...so we're going to make sure that our military looks like America and that our leadership looks like what's in the military."
The words of General Austin, ladies and gentlemen, convey the ethos that inspired America's enemies to no end of mischief. While we were busy constructing a cultural Noah's Ark in the Department of Defense, predators from Vladimir Putin to the weird beards in Iran, Gaza, Syria, Yemen and more exploited America's weakness, resulting in millions of deaths worldwide, Americans taken hostage, and a military that couldn't deter pre-civilizational fanatics in Afghanistan or anywhere else.
I've had occasion to visit a military installation in the Florida panhandle recently and was taken aback by the number of beards, unkempt hairstyles, long and garishly colored fingernails and oddly colored hair that all but erased any semblance of military cohesion among the troops. But they all had camouflaged uniforms, making them look as if someone had plopped tree trunks on a conglomerate of peacocks, flamingoes, cardinals, gophers and other exotic wonders. As a group they looked capable of conquering a Paris fashion runway and little else.
They were a testament to the Final Report of the Army Diversity Task Force indicated several years ago which offered the following operational prescription:
The anticipated nature of future global engagements call for a diverse Army prepared for the human dimension of conflict. Due to current and future security environments, there is a need for a culturally astute and adaptive Army, capable of responding to American interests within any environment. A highly successful, long-term organizational diversity effort will give the Army an opportunity to become a national leader in diversity. Accomplishing this task will make a powerful statement to our workforce and the Nation. Success in understanding our internal cultural and other differences will create a predisposition for respecting differences that extends to preparation for global operations. Developing an appreciation for foreign cultures before appreciating our own cultures is inherently difficult. However, our internal success will enhance our ability to go beyond our own differences, and become more receptive to cultures of others with whom we may interact.
And that, folks, is why people drink. I'm ready for an all-nighter myself after merely copying and pasting that bureaucratic navel-gazing tripe. Of course appreciating foreign cultures before appreciating our own cultural is indeed inherently difficult -- and dangerously boneheaded too. A culture that rounds up Jews for slaughter in concentration camps, for instance, is not to be appreciated before appreciating our own culture. In fact it is not to be appreciated at all. Defeating that culture before it spreads to our own was precisely the bloody point in the Second World War. A culture that flies civilian airplanes into buildings, or straps bombs to children and sends them on suicide missions, or dances in the streets to celebrate the slaughter of innocent men, women, and children should be neither appreciated nor coddled. To even pretend otherwise is to lend a veneer of respectability that insults humanity.
Again, the military's job in all this is to be strong enough to, "Attack rapidly, ruthlessly, viciously, without rest, however tired and hungry you made be..." Anything that detracts the armed forces from that mission is at best a waste of limited resources and at worst a danger to our military forces and the country at large.
The Trump Administration is working hard to make America's fighting force the lethal deterrent it was always meant to be.
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