Military Is No Place for Progressive Politics

National Review Online

Monday, July 17, 2023

 

According to a White House spokesman, House Republicans “hijacked” a bipartisan bill and made it into a vehicle for “a hardcore right-wing wish list.” In the media coverage of the bill, the provisions sought by House conservatives are invariably deemed “controversial” and “divisive.”

 

It never occurs to the press to apply such adjectives to the underlying woke policies targeted by these provisions — no, it’s only “controversial” to try to get the military, once again, wholly focused on being a highly proficient fighting force.

 

The focus of the current fight is over an abortion-tourism policy adopted by the Pentagon in the wake of Dobbs that at least stretches the law and is nakedly political in motivation. Preposterously, the Pentagon is insisting that abortion restrictions represent a threat to military readiness, because female service members will be dissuaded from serving for fear of being stationed in red states that limit abortions.

 

Never mind that female service members have long been asked to serve in foreign countries that restrict abortion. And never mind that if they want to travel to a state with permissive abortion laws, they can use the standard 30 days of annual leave to do it. The Pentagon has layered on additional paid leave and travel expenses solely to make an ideological point about how burdensome Dobbs is and how committed the Biden administration is to fighting it.

 

This has naturally caused a reaction among Republicans. The House-passed NDAA reverses the policy. And Alabama’s Senator Tommy Tuberville is blocking all military promotions in the Senate in protest.

 

There’s an easy way out. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, who is disgracing his office, should unilaterally lift the policy he unilaterally imposed.

 

Another provision in the NDAA wipes out DEI staff and training at the Pentagon. The military was one of the most integrated institutions in American life long before it occurred to anyone that it, too, should be subjected to the fad of DEI, a waste of time at best and an invidious influence at worst.

 

The Republican bill also prevents the military from covering so-called gender-affirming care.

 

In short, on all these matters, the House GOP returns the Pentagon to the pre-woke status quo that no one would have considered unacceptable or controversial several years ago.

 

On Ukraine, meantime, the bill authorized another $300 million in security assistance. An effort to eliminate that funding by Marjorie Taylor Greene only won 89 votes, while Matt Gaetz’s measure to prohibit all future funding of Ukraine got only 70.

 

Most of the anti-woke measures in the House bill will probably get blocked or watered down in the Senate. Still, House Republicans have pointed the way toward a future — assuming that Republicans can gain unified control in Washington — where the military leaves aside the progressive social causes and concentrates on the hard and indispensable work of fighting and winning the country’s wars.