Editorial

KRUTA: It’s Too Early To Tell Just How Devastating Biden’s Impact Will Be On Troop And Veteran Morale

U.S. Army Soldiers Find Weapons During Operation Alamo Sweep

(Photo by Scott Nelson/Getty Images)

Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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It is too early to tell just how devastating President Joe Biden’s impact will be on troop and veteran morale — but the early warning signs are not good.

Early in his presidency, Biden promoted two female generals and touted his administration’s efforts to make accommodations for female service-members — such as providing maternity flight suits and allowing females to wear ponytails in uniform when they were mission-appropriate.

Fox News host and Daily Caller co-founder Tucker Carlson was harshly criticized for suggesting in the wake of that announcement that the Biden administration ought to focus more on the military’s tactical capabilities than its attempts to be more inclusive. (RELATED: KRUTA: Tucker Was Right About The Military, And The Intentional Perversion Of His Point Endangers Americans)

But the military’s journey to “woke” continued unhindered. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin promised to root out white supremacy in the American military and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley stressed the importance of understanding “white rage.”

The United States Marine Corps, after eliminating photos from promotion packets in order to limit “unconscious bias,” suggested putting photos back in after too few “diverse” applicants were recommended for promotions.

And so for the first six months of Biden’s presidency, his administration effectively told dedicated service members of all races, genders and creeds that their ranks were riddled with sexist, racist white supremacists who were incapable of even recommending promotions without their biases seeping through.

But the wheels didn’t really start to come off the bus until the administration attempted to execute a full withdrawal from Afghanistan — resulting in the almost immediate collapse of the Afghan government and Taliban takeover.

Service members and veterans alike, many of whom had been in favor of pulling American troops out of Afghanistan, objected to the manner in which the withdrawal took place.

They argued that pulling troops out first left many American citizens and Afghan allies — some of whom were marked for death because they had assisted U.S. forces — vulnerable to being targeted or even executed by Taliban fighters.

They noted that twenty years of American efforts in Afghanistan had been undone in just days — and the only answer coming from the administration was Biden’s insistence that it was right to leave Afghanistan.

Retired Marine bomb tech Joey Jones summed up his feelings during a Wednesday appearance on Fox News’ “Gutfeld!” He explained that the Taliban had broken his body, but it was the United States government that broke his heart. (RELATED: ‘I’m Not Safe I Want To Get Out’: Marine Veteran Shares Messages From Friends Still Trying To Escape Afghanistan)

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“I’m beyond upset. I feel betrayed,” Jones said. “You know, I tweeted — the Taliban broke my body but the United States government broke my heart on this, right?”

“We sacrificed a lot, and that’s okay. My sacrifice was justified that it happened because other people came home that day and lived,” Jones continued. “But we’ve got men and women serving right now and I couldn’t imagine being there either on that flight line in Kabul or sitting on a base somewhere here knowing you could be called up next, knowing that this is who’s going to have your back, but more importantly who isn’t.”

Army Ranger veteran and Republican Pennsylvania Senate candidate Sean Parnell spoke Thursday with radio host Dan Bongino about the situation.

“I never thought in my entire life that I’d see an American president—Democrat or Republican—bend the knee to the Taliban. It’s soul-crushing,” Parnell said.

Just hours after Jones’ appearance on “Gutfeld!” a terrorist attack just outside the airport in Kabul resulted in the deaths of 13 American service members — 11 Marines and one Navy medic — and wounded over a dozen others.

As reports broke that at least ten had been killed, Jones summed it up in just a few words.

“I’ll tell you, the war dogs are hungry and it might be time to let them eat. I hate that, it’s not woke… as we would say, stack the bodies and let them see it,” he said.

And as the death toll climbed to 12, Jones added one more tweet.

“America is back … to mourning our heroes,” he said.