Those first courageous settlers in the new world — circa 1607 — faced peril and hardship to make a new home in this country. They steeled themselves, ready to fight predators and all who would threaten their loved ones and property.

Within 175 years America faced the British and their allies in the Revolutionary War  (1775–1783), battling King George’s Redcoats, necessitating the formation of regular military. The United States Army was founded on 14 June, 1775, the Navy on 13 October 1775, the Marines on 10 November 1775, the Coast Guard on 4 August 1790, and the Air Force on 18 September 1947.

Since our nation’s “infancy,” the United States of America has maintained the mightiest military in the history of the world. What has contributed to such overpowering armed forces?

Perhaps a key can be found in Steven Pressfield’s The Warrior Ethos:

At Thermopylae on the final morning, when the last surviving Spartans knew they were all going to die, they turned to one of their leaders, the warrior Dienekes, and asked him what thoughts they should hold in their minds in this final hour to keep their courage strong.

Dienekes instructed his comrades to fight not in the name of such lofty concepts as patriotism, honor, duty or glory. Don’t even fight, he said, to protect your family or your home.

Fight for this alone: the man who stands at your shoulder. He is everything, and everything is contained within him.

The soldier’s prayer today on the eve of battle remains not “Lord spare me” but “Lord, let me not prove unworthy of my brothers.”

Civilians wonder at the passion displayed by wounded soldiers to get back to their units, to return to the fight. But soldiers understand. It is no marvel to them that men who have lost arms and legs still consider themselves fit for battle, so powerful is the passion to return to their brothers–and not to let them down.

Ordeals of initiation are undergone not as individuals but as teams as units.

Courage is inseparable from love and leads to what may arguably be the noblest of all warrior virtues: selflessness. (The Warrior Ethos, pages 40 & 41)

Selflessness and the critical mindset of the unit or the team fly in direct opposition to all the self-centered notions and attitudes of our current culture. There is no room for the babified squalling for safe places or whining over microaggressions.

Consider the Soldier’s Creed (emphasis mine):

• I am an American Soldier.
• I am a warrior and a member of a team.
• I serve the people of the United States, and live the Army Values.
• I will always place the mission first.
• I will never accept defeat.
• I will never quit.
• I will never leave a fallen comrade.
• I am disciplined, physically and mentally tough, trained and proficient in my warrior tasks and drills.
• I always maintain my arms, my equipment and myself.
• I am an expert and I am a professional.
• I stand ready to deploy, engage, and destroy, the enemies of the United States of America in close combat.
• I am a guardian of freedom and the American way of life.
• I am an American Soldier.

There is no greater picture of John 15:13 than the creed lived out by each of the branches of the United States military:

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Sacrificial selflessness combined with a “unit/team mentality” fuel the might of our Armed Forces. The team mindset is a biblical principle. Ecclesiastes 4:12 instructs: “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”

Unfortunately, popular culture today has exulted selfishness–self-centeredness–above all else. The very concept of a movement with the motto “Pride” speaks volumes about the hearts and minds deluded by biological fantasy.

The Left and the LGBTQIA activists wailed and gnashed their collective teeth over President Trump’s transgender ban for the military. Those same moaners and groaners have not an inkling of what it takes to build a mighty and lethal fighting force.

Introducing sexually confused members into the units does nothing to help the cohesiveness imperative to do battle victoriously.

So many factors can affect the readiness of armed forces. The experts Trump conferred with understand the warrior ethos and the art of war. Purposefully adding conflicted soldiers, sailors, airmen or marines into the mix detracts, rather than augments, the aggressive strength of the teams/units.

Thus, the strict and stringent physical requirements: mean strength and superlative physical fitness and mental tenacity are imperative.

There’s no room for a military member thinking about issues other than success of the mission. There’s no room for fat soldiers or legally blind soldiers.

The standards for service in the armed forces are purposefully, even vehemently, biased against ANY weak link.

Quite another thing to think about, military service is already demanding on marriages. Think of six month deployments on a U.S. aircraft carrier in tight quarters, with little privacy in the “head” or sleeping quarters where as many as 96 sailors are crammed together. How would a stateside spouse deal with knowing their husband (or wife) was in such tight proximity with a transgender claiming to be a man or woman but still having the biological plumbing and parts of their birth sex? That is a recipe for disaster and divorce.

How can we counteract this unhealthy roar from the Left?

President Trump would do well to continue listening to the Generals, the Colonels, the Lt. Colonels — those warriors who understand the vital components of troop readiness and lethality. Those same military giants should, at every occasion, refute the nonsense and inform the uninformed why we have a mighty military and how to maintain that might.

America has never faced more insidious enemies, both foreign and domestic.

May God help us fight both with an unashamed will to win.

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