The Architects of the Woke U.S. Military: Military Woke Complex

The Architects of the Woke U.S. Military (full series)
Military Woke Complex | Common Defense
Vets for the People | Service Women’s Action Network

Summary: The Left began its long march through institutions in the early 20th century and gained a complete stranglehold over education and the media. In recent years, wokeism has deeply infiltrated sports and organized religion. For a long time, the military and business were at least the last institutions the Right controlled, or so we thought. More recently, the Left has gained—if not a stranglehold—a vice grip on the corporate world. And now the military is under siege. Since his inauguration, President Joe Biden’s administration has run a full-court press to push woke policies on the military, including an executive order to opening military service to all transgender individual, teaching about the threat of “whiteness” at West Point, and promoting senior officers who espouse left-wing progressive ideas.

Hours after his inauguration in January 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to open military service to all transgender individuals.

The push for wokeness in the military didn’t stop there.

Under the Biden administration, the Space Force has considered doing away with periodic fitness testing. The Biden administration’s Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Michael Gilda added Ibram X. Kendi’s book How to Be an Antiracist to his list of recommended readings, while the U.S. Military Academy at West Point taught about the threat of “whiteness.”

Biden has also nominated a string of senior officers for promotion to general who have expressed political opinions in favor of kneeling for the National Anthem, asked for dialogue on “whiteness,” and declared that DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is in the Air Force’s DNA.

Military Woke Complex

In his farewell address in 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower warned about the growing influence of a “military-industrial complex”—the belief that private military defense contractors would agitate for war so they could cash in. This is something different. Whether the term is “woke” or DEI, it’s not just the government pushing these policies into the U.S. Armed Forces. What should also get attention is a developing “military woke complex”: a band of nonprofits—some very well-financed, others operating under the radar—pushing a left-wing agenda into the military.

The list of donors to the military woke complex suggests bringing the armed forces to heel is a priority. The money backing the military woke complex includes big checks from George Soros and entities connected with Arabella Advisors, as well as from major bankrollers of the Left such as the Tides Foundation and the Ford Foundation.

Many of these organizations claim to be veteran service organizations, no different than Veterans of Foreign Wars or the American Legion. Others profess to represent active-duty military. Some assert they’re doing both. But their real function seems to be providing cover for politicians and bureaucrats to push unpopular policies on the military.

These politicians and bureaucrats can claim they aren’t just doing the bidding of the LGBTQ lobby or environmental lobby. In fact, they aren’t imposing anything on military. All they have to do is point to soldiers, sailors, and airmen in these assorted organization as proof that at least some men and women in uniform agree with them.

In the next installment, the Biden administration pushes the military toward being “climate justice” warriors.