In the latest warning shot, the right-leaning Heritage Foundation released its annual analysis of U.S. military strength. The armed forces is currently rated “weak” according to the 2023 Index of U.S. Military Strength, which is a downgrade from the previous year’s warning of “marginal,” military website Defense News reported just last week.
According to the article, Heritage assesses the Pentagon’s ability to fight and win two wars at the same time because that would mean the U.S. is strong enough to react if a second enemy nation attacks while U.S. troops are engaged in a conflict.
In light of that readiness test, the Pentagon fails according to the Heritage analysis that was performed by seasoned defense analysts who include retired military officers.
Regarding the Pentagon's misplaced priorities, Elaine Donnelly, who leads the Center for Military Readiness, tells AFN she was floored when the Pentagon recently tied its new abortion travel policy to military recruitment and retention.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin made that claim when announcing the Pentagon has ordered all military branches to help women in uniform travel to states where abortion remains legal.
“I don’t think so,” she says of Austin’s claim. “I don’t think he has any data to back that up. That’s just an opinion on his part.”
Donnelly says a second sign of a failing armed forces is the morale-rotting wokeness of at the U.S. Air Force Academy. The newest example is an aerospace internship, the Brooke Owens Fellowship, that is supported by the Academy.
Owens, a pioneering pilot, died of cancer in 2016 at age 36 and the fellowship was created in her memory. The nine-week fellowship allows almost anyone - but not biological males - to apply for the brief real-world experience at a leading aerospace industry.
"If you are a cisgender man, this program isn’t for you,” states the female-only application for the Brooke Owens Fellowship.
So who does qualify? Anyone who identifies as “a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, or another form of gender minority…”
According to a Fox News article, the Air Force Academy informed its non-male cadets of the program in a September email.
“Somebody needs to challenge it,” Donnelly says of the program.
AFN reported in a September story Air Force Academy cadets (pictured at left) are being instructed to select “gender neutral” language, so words such as “parent” or “caregiver” should replace “mom” and “dad” in daily conversations with fellow cadets. The academy’s woke cadets can earn a special purple rope if they graduate from the “Cadet Wing Diversity and Inclusion Program,” the story also said.
Back in the Heritage military assessment, the U.S. Air Force ranks “very weak” due to a lack of pilot training, retention issues, and aging aircraft.
Among the military branches, only the U.S. Marines were ranked “strong” overall, Defense News reported.
Among U.S. enemies Russia and China, the report calls China the most "comprehensive security challenge" to U.S. armed forces.
Russia did not go ignored, of course, since its war with Ukraine is happening right next to NATO.
