Eat your heart out, Top Gun.
The US Navy has taken a particularly unexpected approach to the current military personnel crisis – and it has led to all-out war.
Former Navy SEAL Robert J. O’Neill, who took part in the 2011 mission to kill Osama Bin Laden, took to Twitter to respond to the Navy’s recent decision to enlist an active drag queen to boost recruiting.
“China is going to destroy us…I can’t believe I fought for this bull****,” O’Neill ranted about the November appointment of non-binary Yeoman 2nd Class Joshua Kelley, who moonlights as a drag performer “Harpy Daniels’.
And can you blame him?
The Navy says the Digital Ambassador program — a pilot project that has since ended — was an effort “to attract the most talented and diverse workforce.”
Sorry – the most talented?
O’Neill and his team seemed to manage just fine without wigs, boobies and gaudy makeup. What an insult!
In November, the Navy hired an active-duty drag queen to boost recruiting.
Non-Binary Yeoman 2nd Grade Joshua Kelley moonlights as the cross-dressing artist ‘Harpy Daniels’.
The Navy says Kelley was hired as part of a pilot project — which has since ended — in an effort to “attract the most talented and diverse workforce.”
Now, of course, our military are welcome to do whatever they please for entertainment in their spare time – however vulgar I personally may find their leisure pursuits. But this seems like a particularly misguided attempt by Navy bosses to address personnel issues that cannot be overemphasized.
The Navy already expects to fall below its recruiting target for the current fiscal year at 6,000.
And it’s not just sailors. All our armed forces suffer from bare ranks.
The Army is likely to miss its hiring target by 10,000 this year. Last year they fell a shocking 15,000 short.
Why? There are numerous cultural circumstances that make young Americans less likely than ever to join the military.
Not least is the embarrassing fact that, as a Pentagon study found last year, 77 percent of 17- to 24-year-olds would be ineligible for service because they are overweight, taking drugs or suffering from to mental and physical health problems.
Some experts have also pointed to the Biden administration’s failed withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 — which killed 13 US servicemen — as a demotivating factor.
Meanwhile, patriotism is at an all-time low among awakened millennials and Gen-Z.
Only 25 percent of citizens ages 18 to 34 say they are “extremely proud” to be an American, compared to 51 percent of people age 55 and older, according to polling firm Gallup.
Former Navy SEAL Robert J. O’Neill, who took part in the 2011 mission to kill Osama Bin Laden, lashed out at the Navy on Twitter.
The US military — the very thing that secures our place as the leader of the free world — faces a full-blown existential crisis. (Pictured: Kelley in Navy uniform).
In other words, the US military — the very thing that secures our place as the leader of the free world — faces a full-blown existential crisis.
And yet top brass would apparently rather signal their brainpower – and public money – virtue by pegging their colors on the latest ultraliberal craze.
How pathetic.
These are the men and women charged with our protection. Who are supposed to rise above the cultural noise and make confident, informed decisions in the national interest – not the interests of a small but vocal minority.
The left might want you to believe that “strange” identification is the new normal. But that is not it.
Still only 5 percent of adults under 30 – arguably the most progressive – identify as transgender or non-binary.
And how many of them do you think are likely to want to serve in the military?
It doesn’t take a genius with decades of experience in complex battlefield strategies to see that something isn’t right here.
So the question must be asked: who the hell makes these marketing decisions?
Are they the same overpaid bosses who have recently discredited our armed forces through repeated embarrassment on the international stage?
Still, top brass would apparently rather spend their brainpower — and public money — on virtue signaling by pegging their colors on the latest ultraliberal craze. (Pictured: Kelley in cross-dressing).
These are the men and women charged with our protection. Who are supposed to rise above the cultural noise and make confident, informed decisions in the national interest – not the interests of a small but vocal minority. (Pictured: Kelley in cross-dressing).
I mean the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the current debacle over the evacuation of Americans from war-torn Sudan, the recent intelligence leaks from the Pentagon.
It’s no wonder young Americans don’t want to commit their lives to these people’s care.
This has not emerged from a vacuum.
Think of the recent rows over so-called “Drag Queen Story Hours” for children in libraries, dangerous puberty blocking drugs for minors, the new corporate obsession with “Diversity, Equality and Inclusion” in the workplace – or even the Bud Light fiasco that company stock price tank after partnering with TikTok trans activist Dylan Mulvaney.
All of which makes the Navy’s decision to enlist Joshua Kelley even more tone-deaf.
Politically divided issues have no place in the realm of national security.
Indeed, one would hope that our military leaders would be less concerned with waging culture wars than with fending off the threat of terrorist states.
But somewhere along the way, the aptitude for sound judgment has eroded.
Last June, the Navy came under fire after releasing a laughable training video urging sailors to create “safe spaces” and use “inclusive language” and “preferred pronouns.”
The year before, it had emerged that the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, offered interns an elective focused on critical race theory called “Politics of Race, Gender, and Sexuality.”
The recent Bud Light fiasco that saw the company’s stock price plummet after collaborating with TikTok trans activist Dylan Mulvaney (pictured).
But people lose patience with this kind of petty politics. And if the Navy is really hoping to address their lagging recruiting, they would do well to heed the Mulvaney squabble.
Bud Light executives are learning the true meaning of “wake up, go out of business” as sales have continued to fall since hiring the controversial TikToker. There was a staggering 26 percent drop in the last week of April — and overall sales for the year are down 8 percent.
In a fawning appeal to investors on Thursday, Bud Light CEO Michel Doukeris was forced to backtrack on the misguided partnership, claiming it was “not a campaign.”
So as the battle against Russia continues in Ukraine and the cold war for supremacy with China reaches new heights, it’s time to get some priorities straight.
A congressional war game last month sparked calls for “decisive action” after a simulated Chinese invasion of Taiwan proved the US totally unprepared for such a conflict.
Before it’s too late, we must break the waking attitude and focus on what our suffering armed forces so desperately need.