As Russia Invades Ukraine, U.S. Army Gives Mandatory Training on Gender Identity.

Robert Spencer
Frontpage Mag
 

We can only hope that the madness in Ukraine doesn’t escalate to the extent that the U.S. military ends up getting involved. It’s clear that Gen. Mark Milley and the rest of the brass have learned absolutely no lessons from Afghanistan and are determined to repeat the same mistakes that led up to the catastrophically mishandled withdrawal from Kabul.

If the Army were called upon to move into Ukraine, which would be an indication that the situation there had gotten wildly out of control, it isn’t at all clear that today’s woke force would pose a significant threat even to the manifestly weak and sluggish Russian forces. An American army presence in Ukraine would likely herald World War III, and we hope it won’t come to that, but if it does, look out.
 

These are the priorities of Milley’s thoroughly modern military: early in February, Army officers were forced to sit through an official and mandatory presentation entitled “Policy on the Military Service of Transgender Persons and Persons with Gender Dysphoria.” According to the Washington Free Beacon, the presentation gives “training on gender pronouns and coaching officers on when to offer soldiers gender transition surgery.”

While Vladimir Putin’s army was preparing to invade Ukraine, officers of the U.S. Army were learning that they have to refer to some men as “she” and “her” if they want to keep their jobs, and be attentive for moments when it might be appropriate to offer Private Jack a chance to become Private Jill (no doubt soon to be Seargent First Class Jill, for being such a useful soldier of the zeitgeist).

According to an Army spokesman, this woke presentation was “mandatory training,” and was “used to train Army personnel on the recent changes to the DoD and Army transgender service policy.” The Free Beacon reports, “all Army personnel, from soldiers to commanders and supervisors, are required to participate in the training by Sept. 30, 2022, according to the spokesman.”

All this is part of “a larger push by the Biden administration to make the military more welcoming to transgender people.” The presentation states, “The Army allows transgender soldiers to serve openly. An otherwise qualified soldier shall not be involuntarily separated, discharged, or denied reenlistment or continuation of service on the basis of gender identity.”

In a sane society, a man who thinks he is a woman, or a woman who thinks she is a man, would be recognized as suffering from a severe psychological disorder, such that he or she would not be seen as “otherwise qualified.” But the military’s presentation offers the hypothetical scenario of a “soldier who was assigned male at birth” but “says he identifies as a female” and “lives as a female in his off-duty hours.” This language reveals how this entire business is a fantasy from start to finish: human beings are not “assigned” a gender at birth, as if the baby is neuter until a doctor or parent decides it will be a boy or a girl. The baby is a boy or a girl; all the doctor and the parents do is notice which one.

The presentation directs that if a male soldier believes he is female but “is not requesting to be treated as a female while on duty,” he should be left alone. However, if the soldier “later requests to be identified as a female during duty hours and/or experiences increased distress relating to his gender identity,” an officer must “inform [the] soldier of the Army’s transgender policy and recommend that he sees a military medical provider.”

A male soldier who asks to be identified as a female during duty hours has lost his basic sense of reality and should be removed from active duty until he understands again that he is male. But even short of that, the fact that the U.S. military is spending any time and attention on this matter at all is a sign of our deep cultural crisis. An Army spokesman said that “service in the Army is open to all who can meet the standards for military service and readiness. We remain committed to treating all soldiers with dignity and respect while ensuring good order and discipline. Soldiers who meet those standards can serve openly in their self-identified gender.”

Do the standards for military service and readiness still contain any actual military training, or is woke indoctrination sufficient now? The military’s job is to win wars, not to coddle soldiers with psychological disorders. The Russian invasion of Ukraine only makes it all the more crucial for the military to drop all of its programs of Leftist indoctrination and instead focus on actually defending the nation against its enemies. But doing that doesn’t appear to be even close to the top of Biden’s handlers’ priorities.