Veterans Day is upon us this year, and I wanted to share my thoughts on the day, what it means to be a veteran, to serve, and the current state of our military. Serving this country in our armed forces is an honor very few seek out or accept. Those who do earn a special place in the hearts of most Americans. Everyone who raises their right hand to take the oath of enlistment in which they swear to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, risks losing their life in defense of this country. Those people ought to be celebrated, especially by those who did not choose or were otherwise unable or ineligible to take that risk. Every veteran should be proud of their service, and every citizen should be thankful that they did.
I fear that the number of people who appreciate and honor the sacrifices made by those who serve is decreasing. Veterans of WWI and WWII were treated as heroes upon their return, and those WWII vets who are still with us are still venerated to this day. However, Vietnam veterans were treated dreadfully upon their return. They were vilified and treated as criminals who enjoyed inflicting pain and gladly did so under the cover of following orders. Thankfully, that trend didn't continue with veterans of the Gulf and Iraq wars despite those engagements also being unpopular. However, hardcore leftists do not have that same reverence for the military and our veterans; not only that, they want to weaken, if not outright destroy the military. I have some theories about why that is, but that's a subject for another day. If you're skeptical about the assertion that leftists don't respect the military and those who serve, let's examine that for a minute. The military has enjoyed widespread respect and reverence throughout most of the country; therefore, leftist politicians can't come out and explicitly condemn them. To do so would jeopardize the votes they need so that they can stay in power. In that case, how do they achieve their goal of diminishing support for the military? They destroy it from within. The open hostility toward the military started when Obama fired nearly 200 generals and admirals who did not share his philosophy and then promoted officers who either shared his worldview or, at the very least, shared his lust for political power.
The military's job is to protect this country, kill our enemies, and break their stuff. To that end, we need tough men trained to do exactly that. What we have now, though, is a military that has significantly lowered the standards of physical and mental fitness to allow more people to qualify for service. Instead of recruiting and training the fittest and healthiest young people, they are focused on "understanding white hate," training service members in woke ideology, making accommodations for gender-deluded people, and paying for their "transitions." That is a recipe for disaster. China and Russia see our new woke recruitment ads and chuckle. They see gender-deluded officers promoting the alphabet mafia agenda on TikTok and laugh. They see our military members dressing in drag to promote that lifestyle in the military and recruit more drag queens to join and laugh hysterically. Our enemies train killers, and we have started to train social justice warriors. Leadership that honors military members and their service would never allow it to be denigrated in this way. That is how you destroy the military and diminish support for it. I used to support mandatory service for high school graduates because I believe that service in a healthy military instills a particular ethos that benefits society after a member completes their service and reenters civilian life. As it stands now, I would not support mandatory service because I fear that the values instilled in young recruits today are destructive to our society.
Please do not take this as a condemnation of the military or veterans. I am lamenting the current state of our armed forces. However, I am condemning the leadership that is actively trying to destroy an institution and, by extension, the country that I love. This Veterans Day, let us honor those who served this country honorably and thank them for their service. Let us also commit to holding our leaders accountable for the current state of our military. I want to return our military to its former glory - a group of rough men ready and able to do violence on our behalf so we can sleep soundly at night under the blanket of freedom known as the United States Constitution.
Big-E Jackson
US Air Force Veteran
