May 6, 2024 • 54 mins
In this episode, Amber Smith discusses how woke policies are destroying the military and the impact on recruitment and morale. She highlights the disconnect between boots on the ground and leadership in Washington, the lack of focus on the mission, and the shift towards diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and climate change. The Truth with Lisa Boothe is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Monday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
As America continues to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion, we've
seen the death of meritocracy and in exchange, the checking
of boxes.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The result of all of that is a country.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Falling apart, things not functioning as well as they used to.
So how has that impacted the military. We're going to
talk to a friend of mine, Amber Smith. She's out
with a new book called Unfit the Fight, How woke
policies are destroying our military. She served as an Army
combat helicopter pilot an air mission commander in the one
hundred and first Airborne Division. She flew two combat tours
(00:36):
in Iraq and Afghanistan. She also spent time working at
the Department of Defense, so she's seen both sides of
the military from boots on the ground and then also
in a leadership position working at the Department of Defense.
So we're going to get her take on how woke
policies are destroying the military? Are we ready for a
(00:59):
big war? Why are those recruitment numbers so down? And
what role did the vaccine the COVID vaccine mandate have
on morel and on recruitment. We're going to get into
all of it is shocking important stuff. I was proud
to write an endorsement of this book as well. So
stay tuned for my friend Amber Smith with a really
(01:21):
important book, Unfit the Fight, How woke policies are destroying
our military.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, Amber, it's so great to have you on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I'm so proud of you out with this new book.
I can't wait to get into it. I'm just so
happy for you and proud of you.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Thank you. It's great to be with you. Looking forward
to that.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Well, So this book comes at a good time because,
I mean, the world's a mess.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I mean we've got, you know, war in Europe, war.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
In the Middle East, and then we have a military
that doesn't seem up to the task.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I guess, why did you decide to write this book?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So I served in the military as a Kiowa Warrior
helicopter pilot in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And then I
also fast forward a decade plus later, I served as
the deputy assistant to the Secretary of Defense in the
Trump administration, and so I got to see sort of
(02:22):
the inner workings of you know, things at the top,
inside the eg ring of the Pentagon, and sort of
the priorities that were happening with leadership there, and so
I took sort of both of those experience were the
exact opposite, you know, ins one operational military experience and
(02:44):
one more of like leadership and policy. And then in
twenty twenty two, the Chief of Staff of the Army
went and testified on Capitol Hill, and he was testifying
about the Army missing their recruitment by twenty five percent.
And I listened to him give every single excuse accept
(03:09):
reality of why people weren't joining the military. And this case,
you know, this was right in the middle of the
COVID vaccine mandates, and this was after the horrific fall
of Afghanistan and the evacuation from Kabul. And so he
sat up there and he talked about how it was
obesity and mental and physical limitations that exclude people from
(03:35):
military service, which those do exclude people from military service,
but those have also been a problem for decades now,
and so and the military, you know, for the most part,
was able to meet their numbers. And so instead of
talking about the reason why the Army wasn't able to
get their numbers from the percentage they are able to
(03:57):
recruit from, he chose to just you know, throw some
talking points out there that we see generals use in
every war, every issue with the military, and I was
just like, I think the American people need to know
the truth about what's going on in the military right now.
So I decided to write my book on Fit to Fight.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You know, why do you think because I've had I've
interviewed a bunch of you know, veterans, and you know,
there's always this frustration with leadership. So why do you
think there's such a disconnect between you know, boots on
the ground versus the people in Washington and leadership.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So there is a drastic disconnect. You hit the nail
on the head between what operationally like people who are
there on the ground, the reality that is there, and
then the Washington d C air conditioned PowerPoint fancy offices
at the Pentagon. So it's it's a massive cultural difference.
(05:00):
When people work their way up in the ranks, then
they get to DC and the culture that has been facilitated,
it has turned senior military leaders into yes men if
you look at and then in doing so, when they
stand by being yes men, they then realize that you
(05:22):
can fail up because we're seeing you know, good qualified
people who don't want to play this game are just
like I'm going to get out, and so that limits
the pool for promotion even less. But if you look
back to World War Two, generals, you know, military officers
were given a certain amount of months in combat to
(05:43):
go win battles. If they couldn't do it, if they
weren't effective leaders in combat, then they got fired and
they got replaced by someone that could. Fast forward to Vietnam,
you see this massive change happen where if a general
was fired, the Department of Defense suddenly viewed that as
a black eye on the department as a whole, instead
(06:03):
of as a failure of that individual officer. And so
what did they do. They instead circled the wagons and
they stopped firing people, and they just you know, maybe
they moved a job position, but they didn't want what
they saw as a very negative pr move when they
would fire people. So that led to a culture of
(06:26):
no accountability. It led to, you know, not the right
people getting promoted with the right experience, and it created
this culture where you very rarely in today's military see
a general officer getting fired for performance. You may see
them getting fired for conduct. Personal conduct, but not for
(06:48):
performance in terms of the way they're actually able to
do their job. So all of that has led to
sort of this terrible leadership crisis in the military right
now with as you mentioned, we're you know, on the
brink of World War three. It seems like every other
week we need some good, strong leadership, which is what
is lacking in the military right now.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I guess how ready are we right now to fight
potentially a big war.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Well, we aren't in terms of for strength. Our numbers
aren't there for years now. The military continues to in
most of the branches. The Marines still are able to
get their numbers, but the Air Force, the Navy, and
(07:36):
the Army especially is hurting. And you see them do
different programs in terms of trying to meet those numbers
and get them up, but usually it results. Usually the
result is lowering the standard, which is not helpful when
it comes to readiness. We have the technology, we have
(07:59):
the experience, but what is missing is a sort of
the purpose, the focus on what the mission is. So
when I served in the military, it was every single
training exercise we did was to make us better, to
(08:21):
ensure that we had the tools, the equipment, the experience,
and education to succeed at accomplishing the mission. It was
very straightforward. That's what we did. We trained to ensure
that we could fight and win wars. Fast forward to
today and you're seeing the priority which I get into
(08:44):
a lot with my book being shifted from focusing on
the mission and now it's focused on DEI diversity, equity
and inclusion, and climate change and how it can be
a greener force and and stand down days for Secretary
of Austin saying that white extremeism is the biggest internal
(09:06):
threat that the military faces, and unconscious bias training and
you know, making sure that you're using the proper pronouns,
and transgenders are getting the healthcare that they want, and
so all of that that I just listed is a
distraction from the military or a distraction from the mission.
(09:27):
You don't see Russia and China and Iran focusing on
all those things they just listed. Instead, their military is
focused on how are we going to fight and defeat
our enemy? That's what their focus is on. And so
we have I do think it's some significant complacency, not
only in the Biden administration itself, but the leadership at
(09:49):
the Department of Defense.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
You have to take a quick break more on how
woke policies are destroying our military. You know, before we
want to to dig in further into you know, how
woke the military has gotten. But before we do, you
said something that has stayed in my mind that the
Marines have been able to meet their numbers, but the
others have not. Why do you think the Marines have
(10:12):
been able to keep their numbers and others have struggled?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
What do you think is behind that?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So the Marine Corps is a smaller branch, and they
have always been focused on the way that they recruit
and the way that they sell the Marine Corps image.
They're tough, they're hard, they get dirty, they shoot guns,
but they're a team. They have, you know, a joint
(10:39):
purpose and they do it together. And that's what when
the seventeen year old or even younger than that, when
twelve year old boys are you know, playing army outside
or playing soldier outside, they want to go shoot guns,
they want to get dirty in the mud, they want
to rough and tough, you know, living outside, going to
the field. That's why the Marine Corps cells to this day.
(11:02):
If you compare an army recruitment video versus a Marine
Corps video. You know, the Army pushes these like super
soft like technical side of things, like you know, go
work on a computer all day long, and the Marine
Corps videos are like a guy climbing a mountain, rock climbing,
(11:24):
you know, a mountain and then fighting a dragon on
the top with the sword. Like that's what people like
young men want to go do. And so it's I
think the results are glaringly obvious. People want to go.
Young men want to go join a service where they
get to be patriotic and they get to go do
hard things and learn from it and be a part
(11:45):
of a team that loves America. And sadly, when people
are joining the other branches, they're you know, that's not
what they're getting today.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Why did you decide to enlist?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I uh watched nine to eleven happen while I was
in college, and I grew up in a very patriotic family.
I loved America. I knew I was taught just how
important our freedoms are and why they're worth preserving. So
(12:18):
I loved America. I loved everything, you know, the freedoms
and liberties that we got to enjoy every day. And
I had traveled and I knew that America was different.
It's you know, not there's nowhere else on the planet
like America. And so when we got attacked on nine
to eleven and I watched it unfold, I knew that
(12:39):
I wanted to serve my country and I loved flying,
and I when and I talked to all the different
military branches, and the Army happened to have the helicopter
program that was a good fit for me. So that's
the branch that I pursued. But you know that post
nine to eleven patriotism that we saw, that bump and
(12:59):
recruitment where the country was united there for a short
while after nine to eleven, that's gone. Unfortunately, the youth today,
after you know, growing up in the public school system
which is teaching alternative history and talking about how America
is an oppressor and the system is rigged against them.
(13:22):
That you know, young Americans are saying, why do I
want to serve for that? And so it's changed fairly
rapidly in terms of the generational differences between the post
nine to eleven wars and the people who are wanting
to step up and defend and fight America, fight for America,
and now what we're seeing it's actually people should be
(13:45):
very concerned about that because the all volunteer force has
been effective since the end of Vietnam, but it is
not a guarantee. And I think people, I think society
has become complacent with an all volunteer force.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Well, there does seem to be you know, the lack
of patriotism in the country. Do you think sort of
that lack of purpose as a country and lack of
unity has played into these low recruitment numbers.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well, I think that it's sort of the I think
it is a lack of patriotism being taught at a
very young age, and I think that you know, parents
get used to a certain lifestyle in America and it
(14:39):
being comfortable and it being easy, and so that history
and being taught that you know, freedom isn't a guarantee,
isn't happening in households as much as it used to be,
And so I don't know you attach that to an
(15:04):
economy where people are able to get jobs. You do
see your recruitment numbers kind of come and go when
the economy is great and there's other options but it honestly,
it's not like this massive difference. That's another thing the
military sometimes wants to blame it on is the economy,
but I think it's more of we live in the
(15:25):
age of social media, the age where communication is instantaneous,
and people are seeing grievances from service members. They're seeing
sort of the leadership failures. People are posting about it online.
They're seeing the mold infested barracks that they have to
live in. They're seeing the fall of Afghanistan and the
twenty years that service members sacrifice for in that war
(15:49):
and were essentially lied to for years and years and
years from leadership than just be thrown away, you know.
They're interpreters that they worked with get left behind to
the Taliban. You know. So people are seeing some of that,
and I think that they're saying, that's not what I want.
Why would I go do that? Why would I not
(16:09):
go pursue something in the civilian world. And even I
even like the recruitment usually comes like at least people
think from majority red states, so they're like, oh, these
patriotic people who want to serve and their conservative that's
not in That's not today's military anymore. These yes, these
patriotic individuals who may want to serve, are seeing some
(16:35):
of these problems in real time, and they're just they're
saying in their families included, are saying, maybe it's time
to pursue something different, Maybe you should pursue a different
career path, even if military service would have been something
that they pursued. Another big problem is the military has
relied heavily on the veteran population, being sort of an
(16:59):
organic recruiter, and in the last couple of decades, military
service has almost become a family business where if your
parents or grandparents served, you know your children and their
children are much more likely to serve. But that's it's
down significantly in terms of who is willing to promote
military service from a veteran family to their kids. And
(17:23):
it's because of some of those problems myself included, like
the military that we served in doesn't exist anymore, and
so it's like, do you want your kids to go
do that? It used to be like, yeah, everybody knows
the military is hard and adversity is good for you,
like it teaches you many life lessons. But the positives
(17:46):
used to sort of outweigh the negatives, and I don't
know from the people that I talk to the research
I've done for my book, that isn't the case anymore.
Of every single person that I interviewed for my book,
that dozens and does of active duty service members and
then recent veterans, so people who have just gotten out
(18:08):
in the last year, two years or so or retired.
They I asked the same question at the end of
every single interview, and it was, would you recommend military
service to your children or you know, children in your
sphere of influence your community, And every single person, without hesitation,
said no. One person said maybe the Air National Guard.
(18:31):
But that right there should terrify every single American that
the military, the Department of Defense has lost its veterans.
And that is absolutely crazy that that is where we
are are, that that is where we are today, that
veterans aren't recommending service.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
It's you can't what reasons did they give you?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
So the COVID vaccine man really pulled back the curtain
for a lot of people serving, and they saw an
institution that they many had devoted their lives to. They
believed in the system, they believed in what they were doing,
they believed in their leaders and their commanders above them
(19:15):
so much that you know, you follow them into battle,
you do what you're told, You charge a hilltop with
you know, bullets flying at you because your commander tells
you that that's what you have to go do and
have that trust. When the COVID mandate came down, that
severely severed that trust. That is I don't think it
(19:37):
can be repaired with this generation that experienced that, and
because they saw, you know, your oath is to uphold
lawful orders, not to uphold unlawful orders. And that's exactly
what we saw with the COVID mandate. So that was
a significant part of it. And then it destroyed a
(20:02):
lot of fantastic service members, Like it's it's actually heartbreaking
what the military did to those service members and then
and those what's like crazy is that those are the people,
those are the leaders that the military needs right now,
and instead they just kicked them out to the curb.
So it's that combined with like the leadership issues that
(20:25):
I told you out of Washington, like the double standard,
the two tier justice system. Secretary Austin, you know, like
look at what look at what happened with him with
his recent medical issues where he just went a well
for a week, didn't tell even his deputy to you know,
take assumption of command while he was under anesthesia. It's
(20:48):
just like if a private did that. If a private
had a cancer diagnosis and didn't tell his commander and
went and got treatment for it, like he would, he
would get charged with a crime and face. You see him,
Jay Action and Secretary, our Secretary Austin goes to Capitol Hill,
you know, gets asked the same question by members of
(21:09):
Congress and he just sits there with his smirk and
is like, no, nothing's going to happen to me. And
I know nothing's going to happen to me, which is
why I get away with everything that you know he does.
So that type of like leadership failures. That's not the
way the military used used to be when with leadership,
Like leadership used to be you lead by example, and
(21:30):
that's not that's not the leadership that they're getting.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I could see how that would be, you know, really frustrating.
You know, you sign up to serve your country and
one you're not treated well and then to you just
the the overt double standard. Got to take a quick
commercial break more with Amber Smith on the other side.
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Speaker 2 (22:50):
You're a mom, would you want your kids to serve?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
So this was hard for me to, you know, come
to the position that I'm in that I do have now,
and because I love my military service, the military gave
me so much. I learned, So I learned, like everything
that I learned in the military, you know, has helped
(23:14):
shape who I am today. And I'm grateful for my
service and the opportunities that I was given. But like
I say, like the military that I knew and served
in is no more and so no, my answer is no.
Until the military can fix itself and get itself right
where it's a meritocracy again and it's focused on accomplishing
(23:35):
the mission, then no. I hope at some day in
the future my mind can be changed back. But in
today's military the way that it is, No.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
I guess when did this breakdown, you know, begin where
you sort of where the meritocracy and the military started
to erode.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Like what what could you date that back to?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So the policy changes really sort of happened or started
to happen in the Obama administration, and it was it
sort of like happened under the radar though, because you
saw sort of some of the woke ideology like happening
(24:21):
in different facets of society, like the public education system,
maybe the medical system. But no one really paid attention
to the military because, like I said, most of the
recruitment comes from Red states. You think of the military,
you think of patriotism, you think of the military historically,
(24:41):
and so you're like, that's never going to happen in
the military. It's just not what they're about. They fight
and win wars. Why do they Why would any of
this apply to them? And so I don't think anybody
really paid attention and so, which is actually bad, very
bad news, because it allowed it to sort of evolved
(25:01):
culturally without anybody paying attention, including Congress. And so you
had some of the policy changes under the Obama administration
were transgender policy, openly allowing transgenders to serve, and then
also a big one was removing the ban on women
(25:22):
in combat positions and in special operations. And as with
any sort of policy that comes out of Washington, DC,
you know, you write a two page paper on it
about how it'll be done and the expectations around the
policy change, and it sounds like Okay, that makes sense
on paper. The implementation are two different things, and they
(25:46):
go south quickly. And you saw then when Trump came
into office he reversed the transgender policy. There was this
massive outroar within the Department of Defense and you know,
within the media and Washington DC politics. And then when
(26:08):
Biden took came into office, that is when it was
just like the floodgates were opened in terms of these changes,
the executive orders that came down, forcing priorities in DEI,
critical race theory being taught at the service academies, the
transgender policies that were even more significant than they were
(26:34):
under the Obama administration, and focusing on climate change, as
you know, the number one national security threat. And so
it happened fairly quickly once Biden took office. It was
they wasted no time whatsoever. And it's done considerable amount
(26:55):
of damage that even if the administration changes in twenty
twenty five, you will be able to reverse some of
the policy changes, but the like culturally, the damage that
has been done is going to take a generation, you.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Know, and you mentioned under Obama, you know, in twenty
thirteen women achieved full status in the military when they
were granted the right to sort of and direct ground
combat roles. Of course, you were a combat helicopter pilot.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
How does sort of that.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Direct ground combat roles, allowing women to be in that role,
How does that sort of change things? So how did
it change things? Rather since it's you know, we're talking
past tense here.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, when you look at when Secretary Carter changed reversed
the ban on women serving in these ground combat positions
that women had been excluded from, actually except aviation, aviation
was the only combat position where women were allowed. It
did change some things, but for the purpose of the change,
(28:10):
they said that people would be put in these ground
positions based on merit. If a female was not up
to standard, there would be no quotas. There would be
no battle buddies having to Like, if one female was
good enough to be in the infantry and she could
pass everything, all the standards and be there because she
(28:34):
wanted to, you know, be in the infantry, you know,
there would be no battle buddy where the second female
couldn't pass those standards, but the female that did make
it needed a battle buddy to be with her, Like,
there was going to be none of that. It would
be standard based, it would be merit, there would be
no special treatment, and so on paper, you're like, okay,
that makes sense, like equal opportunity, no, you know, guarantee
(28:57):
of outcome, but you're allowed to and I think most
people agreed with that. I think where the issue came
up was especially when women started in Ranger school and
there was lots of accusations of the trainers and the
(29:22):
course instructors that were claiming special treatment for these women
and that they were being given such an upper hand
to men in terms of nutrition training and physical training
and being walked along the course prior to the event,
which men have never been allowed to do or have.
(29:42):
Also where like men, you know, had to pass a
certain test prior to, women were allowed to stay in
this sort of like pre build up phase prior to
and they got to stay in there until they passed,
where if men didn't then they went home. And so
there was sort of this accusation of command influence of
(30:05):
special treatment from a general and where women weren't passing.
And then suddenly he went down onto the course and
you know, it appears that he wanted to be the
guy who got to put on his officer evaluation report
that he was the commander that had the first female
rangers graduate from Ranger school. And there was a congressman
(30:30):
who actually did an investigation to look into this, and
believe it or not, when he asked for the records,
the army first of all ignored him for months, and
then second of all, when they finally did get back
to him, they said all records had been destroyed, so
stuff like that was a problem. And then so they
(30:52):
haven't stuck to the to the merit base. And I
say this as a female who served in the military.
That's bad for women. Women want to be judged and
scored on merit and you know, like succeed because they
were the best person for the job. They don't want
to go in there and receive a bunch of special
(31:12):
treatment and have people wonder, you know, why they're there.
Did they have somebody look the other way or are
they actually good enough to be there? And so that's
what I say, If like you want to give women
equal opportunity, then let them like do it themselves. And
sadly in some cases not in all cases, that's happening.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And doesn't put our military at risk though, because you know,
if you.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Are out there in combat.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
You don't have time or the ability to take those
special considerations or you know, to take those you know,
special circumstances and consideration of oh, this is a woman,
we need to carey right like you were in combat exactly.
I mean, doesn't that ultimate really put or men and
women at risk?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
It does.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
When you lower a standard, someone else is having to
pick up that weight. And so yes, that is a
very very big problem. For example, I am a big
advocate for a gender neutral physical fitness test. I think
(32:24):
there should be a mission standard like this is the
physical requirements to accomplish the mission. It doesn't matter. The
mission doesn't change if you're a man or a woman.
You still have to be able to, you know, whatever
the mission requires. The Army change their physical fitness test
to a gender neutral, age neutral test. The secretary anyway,
(32:48):
it failed miserably, the Secretary of the Army said under
the Biden administration. She said that she was worried that
because of this stand the test, which did men and
women are different, it made it harder for women. But
that's okay because once, like I said, there's a mission standard.
(33:11):
She said, she thought it was going to hurt recruiting
women into the army, and then it would also damage
retaining women. And so what did they do. They lowered
the standard. They went back to a gender specific standard,
and it was lowered, Like it's like to run a
two mile run now of female it's like twenty three
(33:34):
minutes or something like that, which is not much of
a standard. So, like I said, somebody picks up that
slack when those standards are lowered, especially on the physical side.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
You know, the used Department of Defense was criticized not
too long ago for saying diversity is a strategic imperative,
strategic imperative critical to mission readiness and accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I mean, isn't the truth.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I mean, you know, everyone I talked to, you know,
I've interviewed a ton of veterans, as I mentioned, and
everyone has pointed out that, like you don't take diversity
into account when you're out there and you're trying to
stay alive and you're fighting the enemy, Like you don't
even think about the fact that, oh, my teammate is
you know a Christian or you know a Jew or
(34:30):
black or whatever. You know what I mean, Like you're
you're in it together, trying to stay alive, uh, you know,
and trying to protect one another. So like, I mean,
what do you make of sort of the Department of
Defense saying that that is critical to mission readiness an accomplishment.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Well, I think as a talking point, I think it's
the military is like just by the nature of the
military is like the biggest melting pot of everything you
could have for imagine, like it's all there and it works.
And the reason it works is because everybody wears the
exact same uniform. Everybody has the same you know, standards
(35:09):
of appearance, and uh yeah, when you when you go
into combat, everybody, you know, everybody's blood is the same color.
It's so this force diversity, which is extremely political and
it's an attempt to follow social trends out in society.
(35:31):
You know, you often hear the talking point of like,
you know, we want a military that looks like America
or that's what we need in order to be successful,
and it's like, actually, what we need is a military
that can fight and win wars. And the best people
(35:52):
who can do that, regardless of what they look like,
should be the people doing that. So it's like the
military should like they have in terms of wanting to
be fair and representative of everyone has sung swung so
far in the opposite direction. You see, you know the
(36:14):
the Chairman of the Joint chos of Staff now back
when he was in the Air Force or the top
at the Air Force saying that he thought the pilot
core in the Air Force was too white. And it's
just like, why is that a focus? Like once again,
(36:36):
if we get back actually to making sure that the
military is a meritocracy, it's it actually works, and then
you have an effective military. When you are lowering those standards,
it's going to suffer and it creates a weak link
in the chain, and sooner or later it's going to break.
(36:59):
So meritocracy is our strength.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Got to take a quick commercial break more with Amber Smith.
On the other side, Rachel Levine, who's the dude made
history for becoming the first openly transgender four star officer
sworn in as an admiral. How much of that is
earned versus to say that, you know you have that statistic.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
It's crazy, it's it's disrespectful to women. I don't even
think that's like a significant enough way to put it.
She's not that, he's not whatever is not the first
female anything. And I'm so sick of these titles being
stolen from women for and then the government backing it up.
(37:53):
The government's acting as if it is something to be
proud of and deserving of these titles. It's speaking of
why people don't want to join the military, like people
are saying that's what America is about today, Like it
is the if the administration and the military can't live
(38:16):
in reality with something as basic as being a man
and a woman, It's like the rest of it actually
makes sense. You know.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Obviously you did a ton of research and it's personal,
right because you've served in the military, so you want
the military to be better and to to be the
best that it can be. What kind of like alarmed
you the most in doing research? Is there anything that
you found out that you're like, wow, I can't even
believe this.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
So the transgender and the pride stuff was pretty crazy
to read about. Some of the things that were going
on on military basis. Uh, the withdrawal of Afghanistan was devastating.
(39:13):
Two I it is what happened in Afghanistan, and I
almost want to use the word cover up afterwards.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
And before and you flew two combat tours in Iraq
and Afghanistan, just for context for the listeners, Okay, continue,
just wanted people at home to know that.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yeah, so the the way that not only the withdrawal happened,
but the leadership and sort of the second how the
second half of the war was handled, which then you know,
played into the way the withdrawal happened and the you know,
(39:55):
ultimate evacuation. It was devastating and to hear some of
the people's stories who were there on the ground, their
lives were changed forever because of it. But I think
a big one was when there you remember the isis
(40:16):
K suicide bomber, thirteen Americans were killed. And then afterwards
the United States droned what they called was an isis
K target and they went with that narrative for weeks,
even though people started to question it, and it wasn't
(40:37):
until the New York Times came out with a video
that actually they didn't kill an isis K target. They
killed ten innocent Afghans, an AID worker and seven of
which were children, and the Department of just Defense like
(41:01):
refused like to acknowledge that even though even when people
were questioning them about it, and it wasn't until that
report came out from the New York Times that they
finally had to come clean about it, even just you
know a little before they finally had to change, they
finally had to admit it. General Millie publicly was saying
(41:22):
that it was a righteous strike, and I think that
sort of stance, I think people were like, Okay, you
lied about this. What else over a twenty year war
have you been lying about? And I give so many
examples of my book about General's former Afghan commanders that
(41:43):
go testify in front of Congress and talk about a
war that didn't exist. They were talking about Afghanistan, but
at one was not the reality of what was going
on on the ground in Afghanistan and just painted a
completely different picture just to keep the money flowing. And
you know, they would have continued it as long as
(42:03):
they possibly could in terms of a war that was
being mismanaged, as long as they had the funds to
do so. So. Instead they then went on to mismanage
a withdrawal. But it was it was devastating for the
veteran population and I think for recruitment as well.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
You do, as you mentioned, you know, Afghanistan, you know,
it really seems like we never kind of had a mission.
What what was the final mission? You know, right, like,
what what was the end goal? And you know, here
we're entering with you know, Ukraine at least of just
sending endless amounts of money, and it's you know, I
(42:46):
think a lot of people are asking, well, you know,
how does Ukraine win this thing? Not not that we
don't have empathy for what Ukrainians are going through, or
not that we don't believe that they have a right
to defend their country and you know, their borders, but
it's like, you know, how do they win? Right, Like,
what's the what's the what's the plan? Kind of what
do you what do you make of that? As someone
(43:07):
who served in sort of you know, an endless war.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Yeah, so Ukraine is actually, you know, I always said
about Afghanistan the same The end results is the same.
Whether we stay in Afghanistan for twenty more years or
we leave tomorrow. The withdrawal obviously would have been different,
But so I feel the exact same way about Ukraine.
(43:33):
The outcome will still be the same. We can pump
Ukraine full of endless amounts of money, you know, kill
another generation of Ukrainian men. The outcome will still be
the same when the money eventually dries up. It's reckless.
It weakens our own defenses here in the United on
(43:55):
the home front and against other adversaries that we have
around the world. Old and just as you said, Ukraine
absolutely has the right to defend itself. Uh, and it
has proven that it wants to. It doesn't mean that
we need to fund it and be a part and
(44:16):
be like fighting a proxy war against Russia. It's very
aggressive on United States side and provocative in what most
would describe as a regional conflict. It's yeah, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
I think there's a distinction between that and then, you know,
giving money to Israel, a longtime ally who is clearly
winning the war against you know, Hamas, and is you know,
seemingly not too far away from you know, completing their
goal of eradicating Hamas from Gaza. So it's like, you know,
you know, for me, it's just that the common sense
(44:59):
what is achie, you know, what can actually happen.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
But you said something earlier that.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
I wanted to dig into about Pride Month on military basis, Uh,
what can you tell us about what happens during Pride
Month on military basis and kind of what impact does
that have on morale?
Speaker 3 (45:20):
So you have one in terms of morale, it's like priorities, right,
like the military is going to they allow their libraries
to be taken over by drag queens and they do
these like burlesque style dances which they advertise as family events,
(45:42):
and they're used MWR money, which is military money, and
in order to host these things, and it's just it's
crazy to me, like here's what I want to say.
And command usually facilitate these, they sign off on these
events that they allow like these events to happen on
(46:06):
their military installations. So my question is is like they
want to go do these like drag queen shows on
military installations during June during Pride Month, because they of
course have to say that they respect everyone's right to
do anything they want to do and how that somehow
(46:27):
makes the military stronger. You always hear that talking point
anytime anybody brings up LGBTQ plus whatever Pride Month. It's like, okay,
so who, like I want someone to try this? Who
can then say I'm going to promote at a library
(46:47):
on base a women's history month and We're going to
invite a bunch of strippers to perform at a library
and it's a family event. Everyone one can come. Do
you think that that would happen or do you think
that there would be a ridiculous outcry of women empowerment
(47:08):
and how that's like inappropriate. That's probably what would happen,
But for some reason, you attach the word pride to it,
and the military looks the other way because they're terrified
of being called, you know, like non inclusive or getting fired.
They probably they probably would fire people then if they
(47:29):
said no to some of those events. But it's just,
you know, my example is to just show how ridiculous
it has become in terms of what they think is
appropriate and should be allowed, versus if you compare it
to something else that most people would be like, well,
you can't do that. But everybody looks the other way
at all this pride stuff. The military is also using
(47:52):
drag queens as social media influencers. The Navy has a
drag queen for real that promotes the military, promotes the Navy.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
It's it's it's you know, and you wonder why, uh,
you know, red blooded men. I don't want to enlist
and sign up for that.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
That's not exactly something you know they aspire to be.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
And how about like even back to my point of
the Secretary of the Army being fearful about women or
recruitment of women and retention of women, It's like now
that transgender women, so men who are saying that they
are women, Now they can shower in women's locker rooms,
(48:42):
you know, after pet Now they can use women's sleeping quarters,
use women's bathrooms. Like, don't you think that is going
to hurt female recruitment a little bit? Like if I
knew that, Like, oh, I had to go boot camp.
I had to go to boot camp to you know,
as the first deep of becoming a helicopter pilot, but
I had to go and shower with men, Like that's
(49:05):
probably going to have a significant impact on my decision
of me moving forward with joining the military.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Absolutely, I mean I would feel the same way.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
You know, before we go obviously having served examining all
the issues, you know, talking to so many veterans just
like yourself. What changes you know, let's say Trump gets in,
you know, god willing, what should he do? You know,
what what changes do you want to see? Like what
what things could be changed that would have an impact
(49:39):
on you know, morale and military recruitment.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
What would you like to see get done.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
So there's a couple of things. The first is, you know,
rip up every single executive order as it applies to
the military from the Biden administration. It's going to require
a coordinated effort from Potus Congress, sect all the service secretaries,
the co com commanders to then push policy that says
(50:08):
we are going back to a meritocracy, the best people
are going to be selected for positions. We're not focusing
on people's race and gender anymore. We're focusing on the mission.
Get the military back to that, and then work on
that culturally as well. The second thing is accountability, and
this would require working with Congress in the NDAA, which
(50:31):
is probably slashing fifty percent of the generals or the
flag officers that exist today. They are a significant part
of the lack of accountability culture that's been created in
the military, and that has to change. These double standards
at the top and the two tiered justice system where they,
(50:51):
you know, the military elite can get away with absolutely anything.
That has got to change. And so I think that
that's a good starting point. I do think it is
going to be like the whoever is tasked with that,
whoever the Secretary of Defense is It's going to be
(51:11):
the challenge of a lifetime. It will not be easy,
but it's what has to be done to reverse course
of our military.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
You know, Ever, before we go, is is there anything
else you'd like to leave us with?
Speaker 3 (51:27):
I would say that, you know, what is the implication
of a failing military, of a military and a downward spiral,
And I would say the sustainability of the all volunteer force.
We have been lucky enough as a nation. Most nations
around the world cannot do this, can They do not
(51:49):
have all volunteer forces. They do not have people who
believe in their nation enough to just be able to
fight in you know, multiple theaters of operation around the
world with an all volunteer force. We've been lucky enough
as a nation to have that since you know, just
after the end of Vietnam. There's a reason that the
Selective Service still exists today, and that every man within
(52:12):
thirty days of their eighteenth birthday is supposed to sign
up for the selective Service by law. So I was,
and they actually just had a They did a report,
basically a congressional driven report on whether the draft was
or the selective service was still needed and if women
(52:32):
should sign up, and they found that women did not
need to, but yes, selective service was still necessary in
case of a national emergency, which in other words, means
a war that they need to replace combat positions with.
And what a lot of people refer to as the draft,
that's not something that is that far fetched if we
were ever to get involved in any type of direct
(52:56):
war with China or Russia. And I think people need
to realize that that is what is at stake here.
That is why we cannot afford to have our military
become more woke and become as a result, become weaker,
continue to get weaker. So that's just something to think
(53:17):
about about the long term effects of where the military
is headed today. Is like, I would be very nervous
with the conflicts we see around the world, and if
I had a high school aged son right now, it's.
Speaker 2 (53:30):
A great point.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
I'm glad you got that in Amber Smith, unfit to fight,
How woke policies are destoring or military. Everyone go out
and get it. Amber, your friend, so proud of you.
This is really interesting stuff. I know it'll be a
huge success.
Speaker 3 (53:44):
Thanks so much, Lisa. Appreciate it. I get to talk.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
That was Amber Smith out with Unfit to Fight, how
woke policies are destoring or military go out and get it.
Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday,
but you can listen throughout the week. I don't think
John Cassio, my producer, for putting the show to other
until next time.
As America continues to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion, we've
seen the death of meritocracy and in exchange, the checking
of boxes.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
The result of all of that is a country.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Falling apart, things not functioning as well as they used to.
So how has that impacted the military. We're going to
talk to a friend of mine, Amber Smith. She's out
with a new book called Unfit the Fight, How woke
policies are destroying our military. She served as an Army
combat helicopter pilot an air mission commander in the one
hundred and first Airborne Division. She flew two combat tours
(00:36):
in Iraq and Afghanistan. She also spent time working at
the Department of Defense, so she's seen both sides of
the military from boots on the ground and then also
in a leadership position working at the Department of Defense.
So we're going to get her take on how woke
policies are destroying the military? Are we ready for a
(00:59):
big war? Why are those recruitment numbers so down? And
what role did the vaccine the COVID vaccine mandate have
on morel and on recruitment. We're going to get into
all of it is shocking important stuff. I was proud
to write an endorsement of this book as well. So
stay tuned for my friend Amber Smith with a really
(01:21):
important book, Unfit the Fight, How woke policies are destroying
our military.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Well, Amber, it's so great to have you on the show.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
I'm so proud of you out with this new book.
I can't wait to get into it. I'm just so
happy for you and proud of you.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
Thank you. It's great to be with you. Looking forward
to that.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Well, So this book comes at a good time because,
I mean, the world's a mess.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
I mean we've got, you know, war in Europe, war.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
In the Middle East, and then we have a military
that doesn't seem up to the task.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
I guess, why did you decide to write this book?
Speaker 3 (02:01):
So I served in the military as a Kiowa Warrior
helicopter pilot in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And then I
also fast forward a decade plus later, I served as
the deputy assistant to the Secretary of Defense in the
Trump administration, and so I got to see sort of
(02:22):
the inner workings of you know, things at the top,
inside the eg ring of the Pentagon, and sort of
the priorities that were happening with leadership there, and so
I took sort of both of those experience were the
exact opposite, you know, ins one operational military experience and
(02:44):
one more of like leadership and policy. And then in
twenty twenty two, the Chief of Staff of the Army
went and testified on Capitol Hill, and he was testifying
about the Army missing their recruitment by twenty five percent.
And I listened to him give every single excuse accept
(03:09):
reality of why people weren't joining the military. And this case,
you know, this was right in the middle of the
COVID vaccine mandates, and this was after the horrific fall
of Afghanistan and the evacuation from Kabul. And so he
sat up there and he talked about how it was
obesity and mental and physical limitations that exclude people from
(03:35):
military service, which those do exclude people from military service,
but those have also been a problem for decades now,
and so and the military, you know, for the most part,
was able to meet their numbers. And so instead of
talking about the reason why the Army wasn't able to
get their numbers from the percentage they are able to
(03:57):
recruit from, he chose to just you know, throw some
talking points out there that we see generals use in
every war, every issue with the military, and I was
just like, I think the American people need to know
the truth about what's going on in the military right now.
So I decided to write my book on Fit to Fight.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
You know, why do you think because I've had I've
interviewed a bunch of you know, veterans, and you know,
there's always this frustration with leadership. So why do you
think there's such a disconnect between you know, boots on
the ground versus the people in Washington and leadership.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
So there is a drastic disconnect. You hit the nail
on the head between what operationally like people who are
there on the ground, the reality that is there, and
then the Washington d C air conditioned PowerPoint fancy offices
at the Pentagon. So it's it's a massive cultural difference.
(05:00):
When people work their way up in the ranks, then
they get to DC and the culture that has been facilitated,
it has turned senior military leaders into yes men if
you look at and then in doing so, when they
stand by being yes men, they then realize that you
(05:22):
can fail up because we're seeing you know, good qualified
people who don't want to play this game are just
like I'm going to get out, and so that limits
the pool for promotion even less. But if you look
back to World War Two, generals, you know, military officers
were given a certain amount of months in combat to
(05:43):
go win battles. If they couldn't do it, if they
weren't effective leaders in combat, then they got fired and
they got replaced by someone that could. Fast forward to Vietnam,
you see this massive change happen where if a general
was fired, the Department of Defense suddenly viewed that as
a black eye on the department as a whole, instead
(06:03):
of as a failure of that individual officer. And so
what did they do. They instead circled the wagons and
they stopped firing people, and they just you know, maybe
they moved a job position, but they didn't want what
they saw as a very negative pr move when they
would fire people. So that led to a culture of
(06:26):
no accountability. It led to, you know, not the right
people getting promoted with the right experience, and it created
this culture where you very rarely in today's military see
a general officer getting fired for performance. You may see
them getting fired for conduct. Personal conduct, but not for
(06:48):
performance in terms of the way they're actually able to
do their job. So all of that has led to
sort of this terrible leadership crisis in the military right
now with as you mentioned, we're you know, on the
brink of World War three. It seems like every other
week we need some good, strong leadership, which is what
is lacking in the military right now.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
I guess how ready are we right now to fight
potentially a big war.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Well, we aren't in terms of for strength. Our numbers
aren't there for years now. The military continues to in
most of the branches. The Marines still are able to
get their numbers, but the Air Force, the Navy, and
(07:36):
the Army especially is hurting. And you see them do
different programs in terms of trying to meet those numbers
and get them up, but usually it results. Usually the
result is lowering the standard, which is not helpful when
it comes to readiness. We have the technology, we have
(07:59):
the experience, but what is missing is a sort of
the purpose, the focus on what the mission is. So
when I served in the military, it was every single
training exercise we did was to make us better, to
(08:21):
ensure that we had the tools, the equipment, the experience,
and education to succeed at accomplishing the mission. It was
very straightforward. That's what we did. We trained to ensure
that we could fight and win wars. Fast forward to
today and you're seeing the priority which I get into
(08:44):
a lot with my book being shifted from focusing on
the mission and now it's focused on DEI diversity, equity
and inclusion, and climate change and how it can be
a greener force and and stand down days for Secretary
of Austin saying that white extremeism is the biggest internal
(09:06):
threat that the military faces, and unconscious bias training and
you know, making sure that you're using the proper pronouns,
and transgenders are getting the healthcare that they want, and
so all of that that I just listed is a
distraction from the military or a distraction from the mission.
(09:27):
You don't see Russia and China and Iran focusing on
all those things they just listed. Instead, their military is
focused on how are we going to fight and defeat
our enemy? That's what their focus is on. And so
we have I do think it's some significant complacency, not
only in the Biden administration itself, but the leadership at
(09:49):
the Department of Defense.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
You have to take a quick break more on how
woke policies are destroying our military. You know, before we
want to to dig in further into you know, how
woke the military has gotten. But before we do, you
said something that has stayed in my mind that the
Marines have been able to meet their numbers, but the
others have not. Why do you think the Marines have
(10:12):
been able to keep their numbers and others have struggled?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
What do you think is behind that?
Speaker 3 (10:17):
So the Marine Corps is a smaller branch, and they
have always been focused on the way that they recruit
and the way that they sell the Marine Corps image.
They're tough, they're hard, they get dirty, they shoot guns,
but they're a team. They have, you know, a joint
(10:39):
purpose and they do it together. And that's what when
the seventeen year old or even younger than that, when
twelve year old boys are you know, playing army outside
or playing soldier outside, they want to go shoot guns,
they want to get dirty in the mud, they want
to rough and tough, you know, living outside, going to
the field. That's why the Marine Corps cells to this day.
(11:02):
If you compare an army recruitment video versus a Marine
Corps video. You know, the Army pushes these like super
soft like technical side of things, like you know, go
work on a computer all day long, and the Marine
Corps videos are like a guy climbing a mountain, rock climbing,
(11:24):
you know, a mountain and then fighting a dragon on
the top with the sword. Like that's what people like
young men want to go do. And so it's I
think the results are glaringly obvious. People want to go.
Young men want to go join a service where they
get to be patriotic and they get to go do
hard things and learn from it and be a part
(11:45):
of a team that loves America. And sadly, when people
are joining the other branches, they're you know, that's not
what they're getting today.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Why did you decide to enlist?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I uh watched nine to eleven happen while I was
in college, and I grew up in a very patriotic family.
I loved America. I knew I was taught just how
important our freedoms are and why they're worth preserving. So
(12:18):
I loved America. I loved everything, you know, the freedoms
and liberties that we got to enjoy every day. And
I had traveled and I knew that America was different.
It's you know, not there's nowhere else on the planet
like America. And so when we got attacked on nine
to eleven and I watched it unfold, I knew that
(12:39):
I wanted to serve my country and I loved flying,
and I when and I talked to all the different
military branches, and the Army happened to have the helicopter
program that was a good fit for me. So that's
the branch that I pursued. But you know that post
nine to eleven patriotism that we saw, that bump and
(12:59):
recruitment where the country was united there for a short
while after nine to eleven, that's gone. Unfortunately, the youth today,
after you know, growing up in the public school system
which is teaching alternative history and talking about how America
is an oppressor and the system is rigged against them.
(13:22):
That you know, young Americans are saying, why do I
want to serve for that? And so it's changed fairly
rapidly in terms of the generational differences between the post
nine to eleven wars and the people who are wanting
to step up and defend and fight America, fight for America,
and now what we're seeing it's actually people should be
(13:45):
very concerned about that because the all volunteer force has
been effective since the end of Vietnam, but it is
not a guarantee. And I think people, I think society
has become complacent with an all volunteer force.
Speaker 1 (14:01):
Well, there does seem to be you know, the lack
of patriotism in the country. Do you think sort of
that lack of purpose as a country and lack of
unity has played into these low recruitment numbers.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well, I think that it's sort of the I think
it is a lack of patriotism being taught at a
very young age, and I think that you know, parents
get used to a certain lifestyle in America and it
(14:39):
being comfortable and it being easy, and so that history
and being taught that you know, freedom isn't a guarantee,
isn't happening in households as much as it used to be,
And so I don't know you attach that to an
(15:04):
economy where people are able to get jobs. You do
see your recruitment numbers kind of come and go when
the economy is great and there's other options but it honestly,
it's not like this massive difference. That's another thing the
military sometimes wants to blame it on is the economy,
but I think it's more of we live in the
(15:25):
age of social media, the age where communication is instantaneous,
and people are seeing grievances from service members. They're seeing
sort of the leadership failures. People are posting about it online.
They're seeing the mold infested barracks that they have to
live in. They're seeing the fall of Afghanistan and the
twenty years that service members sacrifice for in that war
(15:49):
and were essentially lied to for years and years and
years from leadership than just be thrown away, you know.
They're interpreters that they worked with get left behind to
the Taliban. You know. So people are seeing some of that,
and I think that they're saying, that's not what I want.
Why would I go do that? Why would I not
(16:09):
go pursue something in the civilian world. And even I
even like the recruitment usually comes like at least people
think from majority red states, so they're like, oh, these
patriotic people who want to serve and their conservative that's
not in That's not today's military anymore. These yes, these
patriotic individuals who may want to serve, are seeing some
(16:35):
of these problems in real time, and they're just they're
saying in their families included, are saying, maybe it's time
to pursue something different, Maybe you should pursue a different
career path, even if military service would have been something
that they pursued. Another big problem is the military has
relied heavily on the veteran population, being sort of an
(16:59):
organic recruiter, and in the last couple of decades, military
service has almost become a family business where if your
parents or grandparents served, you know your children and their
children are much more likely to serve. But that's it's
down significantly in terms of who is willing to promote
military service from a veteran family to their kids. And
(17:23):
it's because of some of those problems myself included, like
the military that we served in doesn't exist anymore, and
so it's like, do you want your kids to go
do that? It used to be like, yeah, everybody knows
the military is hard and adversity is good for you,
like it teaches you many life lessons. But the positives
(17:46):
used to sort of outweigh the negatives, and I don't
know from the people that I talk to the research
I've done for my book, that isn't the case anymore.
Of every single person that I interviewed for my book,
that dozens and does of active duty service members and
then recent veterans, so people who have just gotten out
(18:08):
in the last year, two years or so or retired.
They I asked the same question at the end of
every single interview, and it was, would you recommend military
service to your children or you know, children in your
sphere of influence your community, And every single person, without hesitation,
said no. One person said maybe the Air National Guard.
(18:31):
But that right there should terrify every single American that
the military, the Department of Defense has lost its veterans.
And that is absolutely crazy that that is where we
are are, that that is where we are today, that
veterans aren't recommending service.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
It's you can't what reasons did they give you?
Speaker 3 (18:55):
So the COVID vaccine man really pulled back the curtain
for a lot of people serving, and they saw an
institution that they many had devoted their lives to. They
believed in the system, they believed in what they were doing,
they believed in their leaders and their commanders above them
(19:15):
so much that you know, you follow them into battle,
you do what you're told, You charge a hilltop with
you know, bullets flying at you because your commander tells
you that that's what you have to go do and
have that trust. When the COVID mandate came down, that
severely severed that trust. That is I don't think it
(19:37):
can be repaired with this generation that experienced that, and
because they saw, you know, your oath is to uphold
lawful orders, not to uphold unlawful orders. And that's exactly
what we saw with the COVID mandate. So that was
a significant part of it. And then it destroyed a
(20:02):
lot of fantastic service members, Like it's it's actually heartbreaking
what the military did to those service members and then
and those what's like crazy is that those are the people,
those are the leaders that the military needs right now,
and instead they just kicked them out to the curb.
So it's that combined with like the leadership issues that
(20:25):
I told you out of Washington, like the double standard,
the two tier justice system. Secretary Austin, you know, like
look at what look at what happened with him with
his recent medical issues where he just went a well
for a week, didn't tell even his deputy to you know,
take assumption of command while he was under anesthesia. It's
(20:48):
just like if a private did that. If a private
had a cancer diagnosis and didn't tell his commander and
went and got treatment for it, like he would, he
would get charged with a crime and face. You see him,
Jay Action and Secretary, our Secretary Austin goes to Capitol Hill,
you know, gets asked the same question by members of
(21:09):
Congress and he just sits there with his smirk and
is like, no, nothing's going to happen to me. And
I know nothing's going to happen to me, which is
why I get away with everything that you know he does.
So that type of like leadership failures. That's not the
way the military used used to be when with leadership,
Like leadership used to be you lead by example, and
(21:30):
that's not that's not the leadership that they're getting.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I could see how that would be, you know, really frustrating.
You know, you sign up to serve your country and
one you're not treated well and then to you just
the the overt double standard. Got to take a quick
commercial break more with Amber Smith on the other side.
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(21:55):
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Speaker 2 (22:50):
You're a mom, would you want your kids to serve?
Speaker 3 (22:53):
So this was hard for me to, you know, come
to the position that I'm in that I do have now,
and because I love my military service, the military gave
me so much. I learned, So I learned, like everything
that I learned in the military, you know, has helped
(23:14):
shape who I am today. And I'm grateful for my
service and the opportunities that I was given. But like
I say, like the military that I knew and served
in is no more and so no, my answer is no.
Until the military can fix itself and get itself right
where it's a meritocracy again and it's focused on accomplishing
(23:35):
the mission, then no. I hope at some day in
the future my mind can be changed back. But in
today's military the way that it is, No.
Speaker 1 (23:47):
I guess when did this breakdown, you know, begin where
you sort of where the meritocracy and the military started
to erode.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Like what what could you date that back to?
Speaker 3 (24:00):
So the policy changes really sort of happened or started
to happen in the Obama administration, and it was it
sort of like happened under the radar though, because you
saw sort of some of the woke ideology like happening
(24:21):
in different facets of society, like the public education system,
maybe the medical system. But no one really paid attention
to the military because, like I said, most of the
recruitment comes from Red states. You think of the military,
you think of patriotism, you think of the military historically,
(24:41):
and so you're like, that's never going to happen in
the military. It's just not what they're about. They fight
and win wars. Why do they Why would any of
this apply to them? And so I don't think anybody
really paid attention and so, which is actually bad, very
bad news, because it allowed it to sort of evolved
(25:01):
culturally without anybody paying attention, including Congress. And so you
had some of the policy changes under the Obama administration
were transgender policy, openly allowing transgenders to serve, and then
also a big one was removing the ban on women
(25:22):
in combat positions and in special operations. And as with
any sort of policy that comes out of Washington, DC,
you know, you write a two page paper on it
about how it'll be done and the expectations around the
policy change, and it sounds like Okay, that makes sense
on paper. The implementation are two different things, and they
(25:46):
go south quickly. And you saw then when Trump came
into office he reversed the transgender policy. There was this
massive outroar within the Department of Defense and you know,
within the media and Washington DC politics. And then when
(26:08):
Biden took came into office, that is when it was
just like the floodgates were opened in terms of these changes,
the executive orders that came down, forcing priorities in DEI,
critical race theory being taught at the service academies, the
transgender policies that were even more significant than they were
(26:34):
under the Obama administration, and focusing on climate change, as
you know, the number one national security threat. And so
it happened fairly quickly once Biden took office. It was
they wasted no time whatsoever. And it's done considerable amount
(26:55):
of damage that even if the administration changes in twenty
twenty five, you will be able to reverse some of
the policy changes, but the like culturally, the damage that
has been done is going to take a generation, you.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Know, and you mentioned under Obama, you know, in twenty
thirteen women achieved full status in the military when they
were granted the right to sort of and direct ground
combat roles. Of course, you were a combat helicopter pilot.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
How does sort of that.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Direct ground combat roles, allowing women to be in that role,
How does that sort of change things? So how did
it change things? Rather since it's you know, we're talking
past tense here.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Yeah, when you look at when Secretary Carter changed reversed
the ban on women serving in these ground combat positions
that women had been excluded from, actually except aviation, aviation
was the only combat position where women were allowed. It
did change some things, but for the purpose of the change,
(28:10):
they said that people would be put in these ground
positions based on merit. If a female was not up
to standard, there would be no quotas. There would be
no battle buddies having to Like, if one female was
good enough to be in the infantry and she could
pass everything, all the standards and be there because she
(28:34):
wanted to, you know, be in the infantry, you know,
there would be no battle buddy where the second female
couldn't pass those standards, but the female that did make
it needed a battle buddy to be with her, Like,
there was going to be none of that. It would
be standard based, it would be merit, there would be
no special treatment, and so on paper, you're like, okay,
that makes sense, like equal opportunity, no, you know, guarantee
(28:57):
of outcome, but you're allowed to and I think most
people agreed with that. I think where the issue came
up was especially when women started in Ranger school and
there was lots of accusations of the trainers and the
(29:22):
course instructors that were claiming special treatment for these women
and that they were being given such an upper hand
to men in terms of nutrition training and physical training
and being walked along the course prior to the event,
which men have never been allowed to do or have.
(29:42):
Also where like men, you know, had to pass a
certain test prior to, women were allowed to stay in
this sort of like pre build up phase prior to
and they got to stay in there until they passed,
where if men didn't then they went home. And so
there was sort of this accusation of command influence of
(30:05):
special treatment from a general and where women weren't passing.
And then suddenly he went down onto the course and
you know, it appears that he wanted to be the
guy who got to put on his officer evaluation report
that he was the commander that had the first female
rangers graduate from Ranger school. And there was a congressman
(30:30):
who actually did an investigation to look into this, and
believe it or not, when he asked for the records,
the army first of all ignored him for months, and
then second of all, when they finally did get back
to him, they said all records had been destroyed, so
stuff like that was a problem. And then so they
(30:52):
haven't stuck to the to the merit base. And I
say this as a female who served in the military.
That's bad for women. Women want to be judged and
scored on merit and you know, like succeed because they
were the best person for the job. They don't want
to go in there and receive a bunch of special
(31:12):
treatment and have people wonder, you know, why they're there.
Did they have somebody look the other way or are
they actually good enough to be there? And so that's
what I say, If like you want to give women
equal opportunity, then let them like do it themselves. And
sadly in some cases not in all cases, that's happening.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
And doesn't put our military at risk though, because you know,
if you.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
Are out there in combat.
Speaker 1 (31:45):
You don't have time or the ability to take those
special considerations or you know, to take those you know,
special circumstances and consideration of oh, this is a woman,
we need to carey right like you were in combat exactly.
I mean, doesn't that ultimate really put or men and
women at risk?
Speaker 2 (32:02):
It does.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
When you lower a standard, someone else is having to
pick up that weight. And so yes, that is a
very very big problem. For example, I am a big
advocate for a gender neutral physical fitness test. I think
(32:24):
there should be a mission standard like this is the
physical requirements to accomplish the mission. It doesn't matter. The
mission doesn't change if you're a man or a woman.
You still have to be able to, you know, whatever
the mission requires. The Army change their physical fitness test
to a gender neutral, age neutral test. The secretary anyway,
(32:48):
it failed miserably, the Secretary of the Army said under
the Biden administration. She said that she was worried that
because of this stand the test, which did men and
women are different, it made it harder for women. But
that's okay because once, like I said, there's a mission standard.
(33:11):
She said, she thought it was going to hurt recruiting
women into the army, and then it would also damage
retaining women. And so what did they do. They lowered
the standard. They went back to a gender specific standard,
and it was lowered, Like it's like to run a
two mile run now of female it's like twenty three
(33:34):
minutes or something like that, which is not much of
a standard. So, like I said, somebody picks up that
slack when those standards are lowered, especially on the physical side.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
You know, the used Department of Defense was criticized not
too long ago for saying diversity is a strategic imperative,
strategic imperative critical to mission readiness and accomplishment.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
I mean, isn't the truth.
Speaker 1 (34:07):
I mean, you know, everyone I talked to, you know,
I've interviewed a ton of veterans, as I mentioned, and
everyone has pointed out that, like you don't take diversity
into account when you're out there and you're trying to
stay alive and you're fighting the enemy, Like you don't
even think about the fact that, oh, my teammate is
you know a Christian or you know a Jew or
(34:30):
black or whatever. You know what I mean, Like you're
you're in it together, trying to stay alive, uh, you know,
and trying to protect one another. So like, I mean,
what do you make of sort of the Department of
Defense saying that that is critical to mission readiness an accomplishment.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Well, I think as a talking point, I think it's
the military is like just by the nature of the
military is like the biggest melting pot of everything you
could have for imagine, like it's all there and it works.
And the reason it works is because everybody wears the
exact same uniform. Everybody has the same you know, standards
(35:09):
of appearance, and uh yeah, when you when you go
into combat, everybody, you know, everybody's blood is the same color.
It's so this force diversity, which is extremely political and
it's an attempt to follow social trends out in society.
(35:31):
You know, you often hear the talking point of like,
you know, we want a military that looks like America
or that's what we need in order to be successful,
and it's like, actually, what we need is a military
that can fight and win wars. And the best people
(35:52):
who can do that, regardless of what they look like,
should be the people doing that. So it's like the
military should like they have in terms of wanting to
be fair and representative of everyone has sung swung so
far in the opposite direction. You see, you know the
(36:14):
the Chairman of the Joint chos of Staff now back
when he was in the Air Force or the top
at the Air Force saying that he thought the pilot
core in the Air Force was too white. And it's
just like, why is that a focus? Like once again,
(36:36):
if we get back actually to making sure that the
military is a meritocracy, it's it actually works, and then
you have an effective military. When you are lowering those standards,
it's going to suffer and it creates a weak link
in the chain, and sooner or later it's going to break.
(36:59):
So meritocracy is our strength.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
Got to take a quick commercial break more with Amber Smith.
On the other side, Rachel Levine, who's the dude made
history for becoming the first openly transgender four star officer
sworn in as an admiral. How much of that is
earned versus to say that, you know you have that statistic.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
It's crazy, it's it's disrespectful to women. I don't even
think that's like a significant enough way to put it.
She's not that, he's not whatever is not the first
female anything. And I'm so sick of these titles being
stolen from women for and then the government backing it up.
(37:53):
The government's acting as if it is something to be
proud of and deserving of these titles. It's speaking of
why people don't want to join the military, like people
are saying that's what America is about today, Like it
is the if the administration and the military can't live
(38:16):
in reality with something as basic as being a man
and a woman, It's like the rest of it actually
makes sense. You know.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Obviously you did a ton of research and it's personal,
right because you've served in the military, so you want
the military to be better and to to be the
best that it can be. What kind of like alarmed
you the most in doing research? Is there anything that
you found out that you're like, wow, I can't even
believe this.
Speaker 3 (38:49):
So the transgender and the pride stuff was pretty crazy
to read about. Some of the things that were going
on on military basis. Uh, the withdrawal of Afghanistan was devastating.
(39:13):
Two I it is what happened in Afghanistan, and I
almost want to use the word cover up afterwards.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
And before and you flew two combat tours in Iraq
and Afghanistan, just for context for the listeners, Okay, continue,
just wanted people at home to know that.
Speaker 3 (39:32):
Yeah, so the the way that not only the withdrawal happened,
but the leadership and sort of the second how the
second half of the war was handled, which then you know,
played into the way the withdrawal happened and the you know,
(39:55):
ultimate evacuation. It was devastating and to hear some of
the people's stories who were there on the ground, their
lives were changed forever because of it. But I think
a big one was when there you remember the isis
(40:16):
K suicide bomber, thirteen Americans were killed. And then afterwards
the United States droned what they called was an isis
K target and they went with that narrative for weeks,
even though people started to question it, and it wasn't
(40:37):
until the New York Times came out with a video
that actually they didn't kill an isis K target. They
killed ten innocent Afghans, an AID worker and seven of
which were children, and the Department of just Defense like
(41:01):
refused like to acknowledge that even though even when people
were questioning them about it, and it wasn't until that
report came out from the New York Times that they
finally had to come clean about it, even just you
know a little before they finally had to change, they
finally had to admit it. General Millie publicly was saying
(41:22):
that it was a righteous strike, and I think that
sort of stance, I think people were like, Okay, you
lied about this. What else over a twenty year war
have you been lying about? And I give so many
examples of my book about General's former Afghan commanders that
(41:43):
go testify in front of Congress and talk about a
war that didn't exist. They were talking about Afghanistan, but
at one was not the reality of what was going
on on the ground in Afghanistan and just painted a
completely different picture just to keep the money flowing. And
you know, they would have continued it as long as
(42:03):
they possibly could in terms of a war that was
being mismanaged, as long as they had the funds to
do so. So. Instead they then went on to mismanage
a withdrawal. But it was it was devastating for the
veteran population and I think for recruitment as well.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
You do, as you mentioned, you know, Afghanistan, you know,
it really seems like we never kind of had a mission.
What what was the final mission? You know, right, like,
what what was the end goal? And you know, here
we're entering with you know, Ukraine at least of just
sending endless amounts of money, and it's you know, I
(42:46):
think a lot of people are asking, well, you know,
how does Ukraine win this thing? Not not that we
don't have empathy for what Ukrainians are going through, or
not that we don't believe that they have a right
to defend their country and you know, their borders, but
it's like, you know, how do they win? Right, Like,
what's the what's the what's the plan? Kind of what
do you what do you make of that? As someone
(43:07):
who served in sort of you know, an endless war.
Speaker 3 (43:11):
Yeah, so Ukraine is actually, you know, I always said
about Afghanistan the same The end results is the same.
Whether we stay in Afghanistan for twenty more years or
we leave tomorrow. The withdrawal obviously would have been different,
But so I feel the exact same way about Ukraine.
(43:33):
The outcome will still be the same. We can pump
Ukraine full of endless amounts of money, you know, kill
another generation of Ukrainian men. The outcome will still be
the same when the money eventually dries up. It's reckless.
It weakens our own defenses here in the United on
(43:55):
the home front and against other adversaries that we have
around the world. Old and just as you said, Ukraine
absolutely has the right to defend itself. Uh, and it
has proven that it wants to. It doesn't mean that
we need to fund it and be a part and
(44:16):
be like fighting a proxy war against Russia. It's very
aggressive on United States side and provocative in what most
would describe as a regional conflict. It's yeah, you know, and.
Speaker 1 (44:38):
I think there's a distinction between that and then, you know,
giving money to Israel, a longtime ally who is clearly
winning the war against you know, Hamas, and is you know,
seemingly not too far away from you know, completing their
goal of eradicating Hamas from Gaza. So it's like, you know,
you know, for me, it's just that the common sense
(44:59):
what is achie, you know, what can actually happen.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
But you said something earlier that.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
I wanted to dig into about Pride Month on military basis, Uh,
what can you tell us about what happens during Pride
Month on military basis and kind of what impact does
that have on morale?
Speaker 3 (45:20):
So you have one in terms of morale, it's like priorities, right,
like the military is going to they allow their libraries
to be taken over by drag queens and they do
these like burlesque style dances which they advertise as family events,
(45:42):
and they're used MWR money, which is military money, and
in order to host these things, and it's just it's
crazy to me, like here's what I want to say.
And command usually facilitate these, they sign off on these
events that they allow like these events to happen on
(46:06):
their military installations. So my question is is like they
want to go do these like drag queen shows on
military installations during June during Pride Month, because they of
course have to say that they respect everyone's right to
do anything they want to do and how that somehow
(46:27):
makes the military stronger. You always hear that talking point
anytime anybody brings up LGBTQ plus whatever Pride Month. It's like, okay,
so who, like I want someone to try this? Who
can then say I'm going to promote at a library
(46:47):
on base a women's history month and We're going to
invite a bunch of strippers to perform at a library
and it's a family event. Everyone one can come. Do
you think that that would happen or do you think
that there would be a ridiculous outcry of women empowerment
(47:08):
and how that's like inappropriate. That's probably what would happen,
But for some reason, you attach the word pride to it,
and the military looks the other way because they're terrified
of being called, you know, like non inclusive or getting fired.
They probably they probably would fire people then if they
(47:29):
said no to some of those events. But it's just,
you know, my example is to just show how ridiculous
it has become in terms of what they think is
appropriate and should be allowed, versus if you compare it
to something else that most people would be like, well,
you can't do that. But everybody looks the other way
at all this pride stuff. The military is also using
(47:52):
drag queens as social media influencers. The Navy has a
drag queen for real that promotes the military, promotes the Navy.
Speaker 1 (48:03):
It's it's it's you know, and you wonder why, uh,
you know, red blooded men. I don't want to enlist
and sign up for that.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
That's not exactly something you know they aspire to be.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
And how about like even back to my point of
the Secretary of the Army being fearful about women or
recruitment of women and retention of women, It's like now
that transgender women, so men who are saying that they
are women, Now they can shower in women's locker rooms,
(48:42):
you know, after pet Now they can use women's sleeping quarters,
use women's bathrooms. Like, don't you think that is going
to hurt female recruitment a little bit? Like if I
knew that, Like, oh, I had to go boot camp.
I had to go to boot camp to you know,
as the first deep of becoming a helicopter pilot, but
I had to go and shower with men, Like that's
(49:05):
probably going to have a significant impact on my decision
of me moving forward with joining the military.
Speaker 2 (49:13):
Absolutely, I mean I would feel the same way.
Speaker 1 (49:17):
You know, before we go obviously having served examining all
the issues, you know, talking to so many veterans just
like yourself. What changes you know, let's say Trump gets in,
you know, god willing, what should he do? You know,
what what changes do you want to see? Like what
what things could be changed that would have an impact
(49:39):
on you know, morale and military recruitment.
Speaker 2 (49:43):
What would you like to see get done.
Speaker 3 (49:46):
So there's a couple of things. The first is, you know,
rip up every single executive order as it applies to
the military from the Biden administration. It's going to require
a coordinated effort from Potus Congress, sect all the service secretaries,
the co com commanders to then push policy that says
(50:08):
we are going back to a meritocracy, the best people
are going to be selected for positions. We're not focusing
on people's race and gender anymore. We're focusing on the mission.
Get the military back to that, and then work on
that culturally as well. The second thing is accountability, and
this would require working with Congress in the NDAA, which
(50:31):
is probably slashing fifty percent of the generals or the
flag officers that exist today. They are a significant part
of the lack of accountability culture that's been created in
the military, and that has to change. These double standards
at the top and the two tiered justice system where they,
(50:51):
you know, the military elite can get away with absolutely anything.
That has got to change. And so I think that
that's a good starting point. I do think it is
going to be like the whoever is tasked with that,
whoever the Secretary of Defense is It's going to be
(51:11):
the challenge of a lifetime. It will not be easy,
but it's what has to be done to reverse course
of our military.
Speaker 1 (51:20):
You know, Ever, before we go, is is there anything
else you'd like to leave us with?
Speaker 3 (51:27):
I would say that, you know, what is the implication
of a failing military, of a military and a downward spiral,
And I would say the sustainability of the all volunteer force.
We have been lucky enough as a nation. Most nations
around the world cannot do this, can They do not
(51:49):
have all volunteer forces. They do not have people who
believe in their nation enough to just be able to
fight in you know, multiple theaters of operation around the
world with an all volunteer force. We've been lucky enough
as a nation to have that since you know, just
after the end of Vietnam. There's a reason that the
Selective Service still exists today, and that every man within
(52:12):
thirty days of their eighteenth birthday is supposed to sign
up for the selective Service by law. So I was,
and they actually just had a They did a report,
basically a congressional driven report on whether the draft was
or the selective service was still needed and if women
(52:32):
should sign up, and they found that women did not
need to, but yes, selective service was still necessary in
case of a national emergency, which in other words, means
a war that they need to replace combat positions with.
And what a lot of people refer to as the draft,
that's not something that is that far fetched if we
were ever to get involved in any type of direct
(52:56):
war with China or Russia. And I think people need
to realize that that is what is at stake here.
That is why we cannot afford to have our military
become more woke and become as a result, become weaker,
continue to get weaker. So that's just something to think
(53:17):
about about the long term effects of where the military
is headed today. Is like, I would be very nervous
with the conflicts we see around the world, and if
I had a high school aged son right now, it's.
Speaker 2 (53:30):
A great point.
Speaker 1 (53:30):
I'm glad you got that in Amber Smith, unfit to fight,
How woke policies are destoring or military. Everyone go out
and get it. Amber, your friend, so proud of you.
This is really interesting stuff. I know it'll be a
huge success.
Speaker 3 (53:44):
Thanks so much, Lisa. Appreciate it. I get to talk.
Speaker 1 (53:46):
That was Amber Smith out with Unfit to Fight, how
woke policies are destoring or military go out and get it.
Appreciate you guys at home for listening every Monday and Thursday,
but you can listen throughout the week. I don't think
John Cassio, my producer, for putting the show to other
until next time.
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Clay Travis
Buck Sexton
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