Today, the political-military elite and even the US media frankly admit that the US military no longer has global superiority, and to remain competitive, there must be dramatic changes. “Readiness is fundamentally about preparedness for combat — having the right equipment, training and maintenance to succeed on current and future battlefields… In other words, a ready unit is one that is available for immediate deployment — prepared to ‘fight tonight’,” wrote General Charles Brown Jr., chief of staff of the US Air Force, and General David Berger, commander of the US Marines, in the pages of The Washington Post.
However, not only is the US Army in a very unattractive state today, but so are the American weapons, which cannot protect its soldiers. And this is where the problems with the US Navy should be stressed, as well as more and more shortcomings of the Pentagon’s much-touted fifth-generation F-35 fighter, which, despite the billions of US taxpayers’ dollars invested in it, still cannot guarantee the promised performance. – Ellen Lord, the Pentagon’s outgoing deputy chief procurement officer, recently spoke about the many problems of the F-35 and the Joint Strike Fighter program in an interview with the US publication Military Watch.
There are also many problems with US missile defenses, which cannot protect either Saudi Arabia or the Americans themselves. That is why the Pentagon had to ask Israel for permission to station the Israeli Iron Dome missile defense systems at its military bases in the Persian Gulf, Europe and other Asian countries, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on January 24.
Forbes presents to its readers the news that the Russian Pantsir-S1 missile system it allegedly took from the battlefield in Libya last June has now ended up in US hands as a great success of US military intelligence. At the same time, other media outlets report that it is not the American, but rather this Russian Pantsir-S1 surface-to-air missile system that is now involved in the protection of the American air base of Et-Taji, north of Baghdad…
The new US President Joe Biden tries to comprehend a vast set of problems of the US Armed Forces that need to be solved. And so, one of Biden’s first executive orders was to repeal his predecessor Donald Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military. Moreover, all women who consider themselves men and all men who consider themselves women will now be able to have sex reassignment surgery at taxpayer expense, that is, for free. It is expected that, given this opportunity, thousands of transgender people in the United States can join the Pentagon in the near future and, together with members of sexual minorities, allowing not only to solve the problems of civil rights and freedoms in the US armed forces, but also to increase their combat readiness.
It should be noted that 1.3 million people serve in the US military, of which about 2,450 active service members were transgender in 2016, but Donald Trump imposed a ban on them, according to the Rand Corp. policy research institute. – As recent events show, conservative beliefs are hard to come by in today’s America, and the day is not far off when traditional sexuality will be seen as a perversion and deviation from the norm. It seems that this is what Washington wants, and it has decided to start with the US military.
In general, sexual problems are very relevant to the American army. In December, for example, 14 military personnel were suspended or discharged because of “widespread sexual assault, violence and murder” at Fort Hood, Texas, base. Another high-profile sex scandal in Bahrain was investigated by a group of senators demanded by Secretary of the Navy Kenneth Braithwaite, and the information was made available to Navy Times. The problems of sexual abuse in the US military are discussed not only in the US, but also in the European media. So perhaps it is in the settlement of the transgender situation that the new US administration expects to find ways to solve the sexual problems of the US military… – It remains to be seen…
As for Biden’s patronizing attitude towards transgender people in general, one should recall another executive order signed in the first days of his presidency, “On Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” According to Polish analysts, it can have serious and even disastrous consequences, including for women’s sport in its usual form. In particular, they point out: in practice, this means that schools receiving federal funds (that is, virtually every public school in the United States) will have to allow children who are biologically boys but feel like girls to participate in sports in which previously only girls were allowed. For educational institutions that refuse to comply with the decree, the Ministry of Education will be able to apply administrative levers. In addition, such a move would hurt the sport primarily for women: women’s competitions could become a second men’s league for those who did not succeed in the first.
In this regard, the results of a recent Pew Research poll, which showed that homosexuals expect maximum influence under Biden, are quite noteworthy. Though, the military are among the ones most skeptical…
Returning to the latest innovations approved by the Biden administration in terms of improving US military capabilities, according to the Hill, the US Army, based on recommendations from various commissions, will make changes to the appearance requirements of its servicemen. As a result, US Army women in particular will be allowed to put their hair in long ponytails, have very short haircuts, wear earrings, and paint their lips and nails, which was also previously banned, according to Lt. Gen. Gary Brito.
Meanwhile, in Texas, 11 US Army soldiers were hospitalized after being poisoned with antifreeze, two of them are in critical condition, US military officials said. The incident occurred after soldiers at Fort Bliss base completed a 10-day exercise. “According to initial reports, the servicemen consumed the substance in the belief that they were drinking an alcoholic beverage. Army and Fort Bliss regulations prohibit the consumption of alcohol during exercises. The initial toxicological examination showed that the soldiers were poisoned by ethylene glycol,” Reuters noted. Fort Bliss is the site of the First Armored Army Division, which has about 17,000 personnel.
Much has already been written about the tragedy of the current American army in the United States itself, in particular, on the pages of The Atlantic. But it seems that such publications are not catching the attention of the new administration, since instead of pursuing a national military order, it has decided to deal first with transgender issues and permitting manicures for women in the military.
Vladimir Platov, an expert on the Middle East, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.