The Patriot Post® · In Brief: U.S. Military on Dangerous Ground
Our nation just observed Memorial Day, on which we remember those who paid the ultimate price for our freedom. Yet the task of defending that freedom in future years falls to men and women serving now in our Armed Forces. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a West Point graduate and veteran himself, warns that our military is not as up to this task as it should be, and the fault lies with Joe Biden.
The emphasis on indoctrination and the infusion of a deeply flawed perspective, known as “wokeness,” into our nation’s armed services, have served to deprioritize the fielding of new weapons urgently needed by our warriors. President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned of the accretion of power that may arise from improper oversight, for the diversion of management attention, which should be focused on critical programs, has the potential to increase unaccountability within the military-industrial complex.
In the six decades since Mr. Eisenhower’s farewell address, political gamesmanship, coupled with a bloated Pentagon bureaucracy and coteries of officials and officers more concerned with their future employment than with their current obligations, has reduced America’s combat strength. This is unacceptable.
The Biden administration’s defense budget will hollow out America’s forces through the adoption of a “divest-to-invest” policy. What at first appears to be a small increase in military spending is actually a sizable reduction in expenditures when the effects of President Biden’s inflationary spiral are considered.
Pompeo isn’t calling for endless money. Indeed, he says, “It is imperative to weigh how the Pentagon’s money is spent.” And its track record isn’t always great, including “procurement disasters” in all services. Nevertheless:
The development of war-winning weapons must rest in the services, not the swollen Pentagon bureaucracy that is centered within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. The only comprehensive answer is to work with Congress to remove entire levels of bureaucracy that disjoin weapon development, testing and procurement decisions from our nation’s warfighters.
He points to multiple cancellations of critical weaponry in the various branches, often due to production cost overruns, before concluding:
On Earth Day, Mr. Biden declared his commitment to spend billions to make “every vehicle” in our military, “climate-friendly.” Perhaps the president is unaware that war is not friendly to the environment or to anything else.
As a nation, we must charge our military to fight and win wars in order to preserve peace. Anything less squanders American lives. Congress must stand against Mr. Biden’s caustic priorities.