I debated covering this story at all, because my goal is certainly not to just dog the new Trump administration at every turn, but I have to admit, I’m rather disappointed. (Of course, the alternative was utterly unthinkable.) And, principle and accountability matter; or at least, they should.

Anyway, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth made quite a political statement when he boarded a plane flanked by two combat-ready looking women, no doubt hand-picked to prove to progressive feminists that he’s not a misogynist, insinuating that women bring just as much to the war-fighting table as men. OutKick Media’s David Hookstead then jumped on the bandwagon, going full fangirl for the two petite blondes acting as “bodyguards” for Hegseth, calling them “badass” women who “would start cracking skulls if they had to.” Hookstead boasted about these gals likely being members of an “elite” unit of Security Forces known as the “Ravens.”

As a sidenote: I’d never heard of the Ravens, so I actually called someone I know who spent almost twenty years in the Air Force as a pararescueman (one of the AF’s special operations positions), going on countless deployments, and earning a Bronze Star for his service in Afghanistan. When I read him Hookstead’s line about the “elite” unit, he chuckled. When I asked for an explanation, he noted that most of the “Ravens” were washouts from INDOC who couldn’t make it through the special operations training, and the women in Security Forces have quite the…reputation…so by his estimation, they’re not all that elite.

But back to the issue at hand: I remember voting for a strong, ruthless, and intimidating military, the kind that Hegseth talked about in his book, not a diversity-hire, politically-correct one.

For a brief refresher on the views Hegseth promoted in his book, ones for which I enthusiastically voted, see here, from a report at AP News:

He [Hegseth] complains in his latest book that ‘woke’ generals and the leaders of the elite service academies have left the military dangerously weak and ‘effeminate’ by promoting DEI. He says, ‘the next commander in chief will need to clean house.’

[snip]

If confirmed, he has said there will be no more ‘social justice, politically correct approaches to how we fight and conduct wars.’ Instead, he said, ‘this is about lethality, meritocracy, readiness.’ During his confirmation hearing, Hegseth again affirmed his commitment to focus on lethality and to eliminate wokeness.

[snip]

‘I’m straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles. It hasn’t made us more effective. Hasn’t made us more lethal. Has made fighting more complicated,’ he said in a podcast hosted by Shawn Ryan on Nov. 7. 

Women have a place in the military, he said, just not in special operations, artillery, infantry and armor units.

In his book, he said women have performed well in dangerous support roles during war, but ‘women in the infantry — women in combat on purpose — is another story.’ He adds, ‘women cannot physically meet the same standards as men.’

He said, ‘Dads push us to take risks. Moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat units.’

(For context, “Ravens” are often in combat zones.)

All of Hegseth’s book views are exactly right. So why make a political statement now and put female “bodyguards” front and center? How they can “guard” him while being noticeably shorter is beyond me, and it’s evocative of the time Trump took a bullet surrounded by short women. Clearly these women aren’t there on merit—because how could they be? The U.S. military can, without a doubt, find a bigger, stronger man to flank Hegseth’s airstairs, which is what they would do if the goal really was intimidation, raw lethality, and readiness, irrespective of how leftist progressives, or apparently even conservatives, might feel about it. Hegseth notes the military is “dangerously weak and effeminate”... so maybe don’t promote literal femininity in the ranks to make the leftists, and go-along-get-along types, comfortable. Say it with me: “Appeasement does not work.”

Seriously, two pint-sized women? In what world does that strike fear into the hearts of hostile nations? It’s a joke.

This isn’t to say that women aren’t capable of amazingly heroic acts of sacrifice, but that should only be when the frontline is on your doorstep, and you have no choice but to fight. However, pretending that we are on a level playing field with the average warrior male, and taking the position from a better fit—a man who no doubt exists—is absurd, and it makes me embarrassed to be associated with the female sex.

This is still wokeness, no matter how you want to frame it, and wokeness in the military gets innocent people killed.

Image from X.