{"id":5217,"date":"2017-07-27T08:57:24","date_gmt":"2017-07-27T06:57:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5217"},"modified":"2017-07-27T09:04:30","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T07:04:30","slug":"trump-trannies-and-the-military","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/5217\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, Trannies, and the Military"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the BBC<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The White House has not yet decided how it will implement the president’s ban on transgender people serving in the US military.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What’s to decide? Here’s the background, buried way down in the article:<\/p>\n

The decision to allow transgender people to serve openly in the military was made by the Obama administration last year, with a one-year review period allowed for its implementation.<\/p>\n

The policy included a provision for the military to provide medical help for service members wanting to change gender.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As with so much else, Obama signed off on a highly controversial policy very late in his tenure, ensuring his disciples continued their Messiah-like worship but leaving the trouble of implementation to his successor. Of course, this was likely the whole point: if Trump won, which he did, it would sit there like a landmine – which has now gone off. Presumably White House will implement its latest policy by winding things back to, ooh, mid-2016.<\/p>\n

As is expected, the media is presenting this as if transgender folk have been happily serving in the US military for decades and Trump came along and banned them for political reasons:<\/p>\n

Why now? With the Trump administration being buffeted by the Jeff Sessions political death watch, the ongoing multi-prong investigation into the Trump campaign, the healthcare drama in the Senate and the impending Russian sanctions bill, perhaps the administration decided this was a good time to change the subject and rally conservative forces to his side.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Really? Or perhaps Trump is telling the truth when he says:<\/p>\n

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is a sign of how out of touch the media has become that they believe most Americans think transgenders serving in the military is a not only a good thing, but a fundamental right. It’s quite amazing how rescinding a provisional law brought in 9 months ago can be presented as an attack on American values, but this is what happens when people live in bubbles.<\/p>\n

One figure being widely circulated is that there are 15,000 transgenders currently serving in the military. Given transgenders make up less than 1% of the population and the law allowing them to serve came in less than a year ago, this is impressive recruiting. Or maybe there was an entire division of transgenders just waiting for the law to change so they could sign up? Or perhaps the figure is utter bollocks.<\/p>\n

Mr Trump said his decision was based on consultation with his generals, but there has been a mixed reaction.<\/p>\n

Former Defence Secretary Ash Carter, who lifted the ban last year under President Obama, said: “To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Quite right.<\/p>\n

Several British military generals also condemned Mr Trump’s decision, including the commander of the UK Maritime Forces, Rear Admiral Alex Burton, who said “I am so glad we are not going this way.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

British? In other words, the BBC couldn’t find any American “generals” to support their claim that the reaction was “mixed”, so they had to find some Brits. I’m sorry, but a British Rear Admiral criticising US military policy is a bit like the assistant coach of Pennar Robins<\/a> football club saying he doesn’t like the tactics of Jose Mourinho. Nevertheless, the BBC devotes an entire article<\/a> to their witterings:<\/p>\n

\n

Commanders from British armed forces have opposed any ban on transgender people serving in the military.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Rear Admiral Burton of the Royal Navy tweeted: “As a Royal Navy LGBT champion and senior warfighter I am so glad we are not going this way.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

With the possibly exception of the Royal Marines and Trident, the Royal Navy has been an utter irrelevance since the Iranians demonstrated its impotence by capturing<\/a> and humiliating its sailors in 2007. From what I can tell, It exists in its current form mainly as a social welfare program, as is the case with most European militaries. Naval commanders tweeting like a teenage girl doesn’t do much to change my mind on this. And what is an LGBT champion?<\/p>\n

[I]n June, Defence Secretary James Mattis agreed to a six-month delay in the recruitment of transgender people.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So who is the better placed to make a judgement on this? James Mattis or some arse-licking British Rear Admiral?<\/p>\n

Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral Jonathan Woodcock\u00a0tweeted: “So proud of our transgender personnel. They bring diversity to our Royal Navy and I will always support their desire to serve their country.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ooh, somebody’s got with the program, hasn’t he? Embracing the notion that “diversity” is a noble end in itself, to which all else must be sacrificed, is but one requirement of arse-licking your way to the senior ranks of the Royal Navy.<\/p>\n

“I suspect many who doubt the abilities of our diverse service personnel might be more reluctant to serve than they are to comment.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Never mind the trannies , I’m more doubtful of the abilities of the senior command!<\/p>\n

In February, the Army’s LGBT champion, Lieutenant General Patrick Sanders said: “Only if individuals are free to be themselves can we release the genie of their potential.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another LGBT champion? Soon we’ll have more of these than we will main battle tanks! And don’t militaries rely on conformity and unit cohesion, not free individuals “being themselves”? Obviously not the modern military, which is – as I said – basically a social welfare program.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Defence told the BBC that President Trump’s tweets were “an American issue”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yet senior commanders are free to criticise his military policies via Twitter in their professional capacity? You need to get a grip of your people, mate.<\/p>\n

A spokesman added: “We are clear that all LGBT members of our armed forces play a vital role in keeping our nation safe. We will continue to welcome people from a diverse range of backgrounds, including transgender personnel.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Which is only possible because the Americans you pompously condemn have ensured you will never have to actually fight.<\/p>\n

I’m not normally a fan of defence cuts, but I must say, I’m warming to them rapidly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the BBC: The White House has not yet decided how it will implement the president’s ban on transgender people serving in the US military. What’s to decide? Here’s the background, buried way down in the article: The decision to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42,44,40],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5217"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5217"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5220,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5217\/revisions\/5220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}