The Patriot Post® · Woke Pentagon Investigating Extremism and Warmism

It’s good to know the adults are back in charge. Otherwise, we’d lie awake in bed at night, wondering what we’re going to do about those twin scourges of global warming and white supremacy.

But with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris running the show, and with the world’s finest military at their disposal, the sky’s the limit. After all, what organization could be better equipped to tackle these two existential threats than the world’s foremost killer of bad guys and breaker of bad things?

As for sending a clear signal of resolution to our geopolitical foes, what could be more convincing than an avowed commitment to rooting out the lactose-intolerant Einsatzgruppen in our midst?

Weakness is provocative, but the Biden DoD is so strong it doesn’t even need to worry about military readiness.

So don’t mess, China. You either, Russia. Iran, NoKo, jihadists, ditto.

Naturally, the architect for this new approach to national defense will be Joe Biden’s man at the Pentagon. As The Washington Times reports, “Across the armed forces, climate change and its ripple effects are taking center stage. … The military’s climate change mitigation efforts certainly did not stop during the Trump administration, but the issue was pushed to the political back burner. Top leadership in the Defense Department rarely spoke out on environmental matters despite mounting concerns behind the scenes that it remain a top priority. Now, analysts and military insiders say, the Pentagon under Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has an opening to reshape the climate change debate fundamentally and permanently, perhaps putting an end to any remaining internal skepticism over whether the issue is deserving of time and resources.”

Got that? The Pentagon will no longer tolerate climate skeptics. Because, well, the science is settled.

Austin, 67, is our nation’s first black secretary of defense and therefore the perfect embodiment of the Biden administration’s obsession with race. A West Point graduate and former commander of U.S. Central Command under Barack Obama, Austin retired in 2016 and therefore needed a waiver from Congress to override the law that says a member of our military must wait seven years from active service to take the top civilian post.

“Given the immense and urgent threats and challenges our nation faces, he should be confirmed swiftly,” Biden wrote in a predictably hagiographic Atlantic op-ed. “The fact is, Austin’s many strengths and his intimate knowledge of the Department of Defense and our government are uniquely matched to the challenges and crises we face.”

Austin got his waiver, and he was quickly confirmed on a 93-2 vote in the Senate. Missouri’s Josh Hawley and Utah’s Mike Lee were opposed.

Once confirmed, Austin didn’t waste any time getting to the crux of what ails our nation’s military. As The Hill reports, “Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday ordered a U.S. military-wide ‘stand-down’ to address extremism in the ranks, an issue that has long stumped Pentagon leaders but came to the forefront after the Jan. 6 breach of the U.S. Capitol. The Defense Department is still scant on details on Austin’s decision, which came after he met with Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and the service secretaries and chiefs on Wednesday morning. Leaders are expected to hold ‘needed discussions’ with subordinates about extremism in the next 60 days, top department spokesperson John Kirby told reporters at the Pentagon.”

The Washington Examiner adds, “The FBI is reportedly investigating 25 individuals at the riot who might be active service members or veterans, according to the Military Times. Almost nothing is known about the status or details of any of the investigations. The only service member who authorities have fingered as part of the siege on the Capitol is Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli, an Army reservist.”

Lloyd Austin, said Joe Biden, “is the person we need in this moment.” We’re to assume, then, that this moment demands that our military focus on the non-calamity of climate change and the white supremacist “extremism” that has infected its rotten ranks. If those two initiatives don’t build troop morale, it’s hard to imagine what will.

But here we thought the mission of our Department of Defense was “to provide the military forces needed to deter war and ensure our nation’s security” — you know, like it says right here on its website.

We can only hope that our military readiness doesn’t suffer, and that our failure to focus on war-fighting doesn’t prove provocative.

(Updated.)