Chuck Snyder/Special to The News Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
Powerful forces are out to derail Pete Hegseth’s bid to become secretary of defense and carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to reform the Pentagon.
The Army veteran and former Fox News host has been hammered by a stream of inflammatory accusations in recent days, from past allegations of sexual assault to absurd and baseless claims that his faith-based tattoos reveal him as a white supremacist.
Hegseth, of course, has never faced criminal charges, has never been connected to any white supremacy groups or activities and has never deviated from his loyalty to country — so these preposterous attacks merely reveal the desperation of those seeking to subvert his confirmation.
Why? Because, after a groundless 10-year war in Iraq and a 20-year stalemate in Afghanistan, the US military is embroiled in a culture war — another war it seems to be losing.
Instead of prioritizing operational readiness, current establishment leadership in the US armed forces and the White House have aggressively implemented identity politics and the demands of far-left lobbyists who have destroyed the military from within.
America’s once-sacred institution has morphed into one of the nation’s most “woke” industrial complexes — and the consequences are dire.
Service members are losing their careers, their retirements and in some cases their freedom due to this cultural shift.
Meanwhile, billions of taxpayer dollars continue to flow into national defense as the military’s priorities increasingly reflect a departure from its core mission.
A change in leadership is crucial, and Hegseth — a decorated war veteran and outspoken advocate for military members — is the solution the Pentagon needs.
As former military prosecutors and career military justice attorneys, we saw the military’s “wokeification” beginning around 2010, when the Defense Department became entrenched in its version of the #MeToo movement.
In the process of righteously seeking to end sexual assault in the military, the department and Congress unwittingly opened a Pandora’s box of unending pressure and demands from lobbyists and interest groups that soon shifted into the business of identity politics.
Woke policies in the military are, in many ways, far more dangerous than similar movements in civilian society: They’re backed by the power of criminal law, and individuals who fail to fall in line can be — and often are — jailed or severely punished for violating them.
Today, woke policies reign supreme across the department, subverting the chain of command and all but abolishing the pure meritocracy our military once was.
The military now spends untold hours and hundreds of millions of dollars in manpower, resources and time adjudicating the feelings and perceived offenses of those in the ranks under the vast and ever-growing umbrella of “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
This focus on identity politics has led to the removal of competent, experienced service members over trivial infractions.
Examples of absurdity abound. Service members have been punished for things like offering self-defense courses to women (deemed “victim-blaming”) or making videos featuring men for International Women’s Day (declared “mansplaining”).
In many cases, failure to give an award to someone who identifies as a disenfranchised individual will lead to a full-scale investigation. (Don’t look at their performance metrics.)
Hegseth is well aware of these issues and has shown zero tolerance for such distractions.
On Saturday, when Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) posted a comment describing how official Air Force Academy forms have erased the terms “mother and father” in favor of “birthing parent and non-birthing parent,” Hegseth responded with three words: “Not for long.”
He is committed to refocusing the military on its primary mission: readiness and defense.
His criticism of the integration of women into combat roles, for instance, reflects a practical approach based on substantial evidence.
Even though a comprehensive study showed that all-male combat units outperformed mixed-gender units across the board, including speed, accuracy and injury rates, the Pentagon opened all combat jobs to women, with no exceptions.
A “gender neutral” test to qualify for combat positions was scrapped in 2022, under fierce pressure from advocacy groups, as the number of women making the cut was extremely low.
“Our future enemies will be the ultimate arbiter of such decisions,” Brig. Gen. George W. Smith Jr., then director of the Marine Corps Force Initiative, observed.
Let’s hope we don’t find out the hard way.
Under President Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, the US military has increasingly prioritized political correctness over combat readiness.
Their priorities reflect a growing disregard for national security and the well-being of service members, in favor of appeasing political constituencies and waging a culture war that undermines its core mission.
Trump and Hegseth give us hope that the US military will soon restore the values that once made it great.
Andrew Cherkasky (@CherkaskyLaw) and Katie Cherkasky (@CherkaskyKatie) are military veterans, former federal prosecutors and current criminal defense attorneys. They are authors of the book “Woke Warriors.”