America’s military and our country won’t survive if wokeism continues to rule

American security, and the safety of every one of our families, rests on the shoulders of our men and women in uniform. Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines must be trained to fight and win. Their training must never be corrupted to serve political ends. Doing so subverts the military’s warrior ethos and puts our nation, her freedoms, and her people at real risk. It also endangers the men and women who have voluntarily put their lives on the line to defend America. 

This is why we must do everything we can to stop the spread of wokeness throughout our armed forces and put a stop to it. Under the Biden administration, warfighting doctrines are being replaced – even at the training level – with doctrines of diversity, equity and inclusion.  

This sickness has most recently taken hold in the Air Force. As Fox News reported, the United States Air Force Academy – the sister university to my alma mater of West Point – has created a fellowship program that excludes men who are biological males – only women and transgendered need apply. 

AIR FORCE ACADEMY PROMOTES FELLOWSHIP THAT BANS ‘CISGENDER' MEN: ‘THIS PROGRAM ISN’T FOR YOU’

Academy cadets are also being told to avoid committing "microaggressions" by replacing terms such as "you guys" and "terrorists" with terms that have been deemed "less offensive." Instructors tell cadets that they should use the terms "Parent" or "Caregiver," rather than say "Mom and Dad." You can say "Partner," but not "Boyfriend/Girlfriend." Under the Biden administration, our Air Force cannot call terrorists what they are, yet considers "Mom and Dad" to be offensive language. We have put pronouns over potency in our fighting forces.

This smut is nothing more than repackaged Marxist dogma, an ideology that proposes race, gender, and other arbitrary characteristics must determine relationships between people, even between soldiers. It proposes racism is, supposedly, still concealed within the fabric of America’s military institutions. Even our Marxists foes reject this dogma for the sake of their own military readiness. 

How can we ask young men and women who have decided to risk their lives for America, even die for America, to affirm that our country is inherently racist? How can we ask them to view their brothers and sisters in arms through the narrow prisms of race or gender? The clear and obvious answer is that we cannot – not without putting their lives at risk on the battlefield. A woke military is a weak military. Unfortunately, woke and weak are exactly what our military is becoming under Biden’s leadership.  

There can only be one standard in our nation’s military: excellence. Anything else undermines the core values of faith, honor, duty, and service to others that are the pillars of America’s military power.  

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I served as a tank captain in Germany during the final days of the Cold War. Our crew was tasked with patrolling the Iron Curtain, literally the dividing line between tyranny and freedom, between good and evil. Were a conflict to break out, we knew that we would be outnumbered in the fight by a margin of 7-to-1. Not one person in my crew cared about race or identity – what we cared about was whether you could perform your duties with excellence under the greatest pressures imaginable.  

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Marxist dogma was the foundation of the Soviet Union’s tyranny. It was the foundation of the communist lie we fought against. Now its false, empty, and broken ideas – ideas that America defeated – are taking root throughout our nation’s military. 

That’s unacceptable. America’s military needs to wake up – champion excellence and throw out wokeness. This week I am launching a nationwide campaign to stop the spread of readiness-killing wokeness in our military. I will never give an inch in defense of our nation’s military. 

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