And your problem with this is what?

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned more than 800 military leaders from all over the world to a base in Quantico, Virginia, on Tuesday morning — only to dress them down. Pacing back and forth against the backdrop of a giant American flag in the highly unusual (and televised) convening of military brass, Hegseth declared it “completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals” in the military. Even though Hegseth’s main qualification for Trump’s Cabinet seems to have been his time working for Fox News, he told the military leaders assembled before him that many of them hadn’t earned their promotions, but were only advanced because of their race or sex. "We've promoted too many uniformed leaders for the wrong reasons: based on their race, based on gender quotas, based on historic so-called 'firsts,'" he said.

Let the hand wringing and pearl clutching begin. While there still may be places here and there for a bit of DEI (maybe), I think we can all agree that when it comes to the military we need to be color blind, gender blind, and most certainly blind to political leanings. We should not hire or promote someone because of their race or gender and we should not fire or demote over political leanings. Of course, this sort of logic goes over like a fart in church for these woke folk. When your entire identity is tied to something other than your skills and accomplishments, well then you will defend what you are tied to.

Will any of these people quit or will they try to hang on with hopes that new leadership in 2028 will turn the clock back and allow them to wear their rainbow camouflage and chastise those bad conservatives for being conservative. Maybe, maybe not. But I suspect many might find themselves fired for cause if they continue down their current political ideologically driven paths. Then they can be replaced by people who are more in touch with how the military works.

We have become spoiled by the fact that we don't really participate in real wars anymore, at least not the types (like Ukraine/Russia or Hamas/Israel) where people are killed. Our military skirmishes are fought largely by special forces and other elite soldiers who probably are flying drones or fighting from a far. So for most people in the military, being combat ready is simply an abstract concept that is likely seen as unnecessary. I seriously wonder how our current military would handle being sent to the front lines of either of those current wars and I suspect it would not turn out as well as we might hope.

This is where Hegseth comes in. Whether or not it is currently necessary to have a million soldiers combat ready is a moot point. If you join the military, expect to become combat ready. If that is not what you are signing up for, then don't sign up.