When an American raises their right hand to take the oath as they enter the military service, they promise to “protect and defend the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic.” They also pledge their allegiance to our national banner, the Stars and Stripes, thirteen alternating red and white stripes, and fifty white stars on a field of blue. They do not pledge their allegiance to a rainbow-colored flag. Protecting and defending the United States has nothing to do with promoting who one chooses to engage in sexual relations with.

America’s armed forces have lost their way. The leadership at the Pentagon is seemingly more concerned with promoting an alternative lifestyle choice than with insuring that America and Americans remain free and protected from our increasingly threatening adversaries, in a very dangerous world.

While members of the Chinese military are training hard in the art of war and focusing their energies on learning more effective ways to win on the battlefield, America’s Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Coast Guardsmen are learning about using proper pronouns. And ensuring that they use the correct one when interacting with other service members, or possibly face non-judicial punishment if they don’t.

What once was considered deviant sexual behaviors that resulted in dismissal from the armed forces if made public are now being celebrated on U.S. military bases around the world. Rainbow flags fly alongside our national banner, the Pentagon is lit up with rainbow colors at night, and more emphasis is placed on finding ways to assimilate men who like to dress up in women’s clothes into the military branches, than in learning how to kill our enemies.

Now before the LGBTQ community hyperventilates and accuses me of ten kinds of phobias, as with most other military veterans I could care less what someone does in the privacy of their bedroom, as long as innocent children and other innocent people are not victimized. It’s your business, but keep it your business.

What matters to most veterans is how one performs their military duties. As the old adage goes, when slinging lead with the enemy a soldier cares only whether your aim is true, and you have their ‘six’. Not whether you’re sexually attracted to your own gender, or that you like to dress up as a woman.

The U.S. Armed Forces survived racial integration and was obviously made far better as a result. The contributions of black Americans have been extensive, and countless have served heroically and made the ultimate sacrifice in service to America. As far back as our revolution and the country’s very founding. Women have also served honorably, and continue to serve with distinction in our armed forces to this very day.

Racial integration of the military, while not without challenges and a backlash on the part of a few racist holdovers who were reluctant to accept it, eventually proved to be a transition that was accomplished with far less difficulty than racial integration of the American population in general. Which unfortunately to this day still has racist holdovers struggling to accept it.

While racial integration of the military was implemented and fully embraced, acceptance of this new ‘woke’ bill of fare being peddled by the senior military leadership, with the emphasis on the LGBTQ agenda has been less than a resounding success.

Partly the reason why is that a person’s sexuality is much more of an intimate and personal thing than simply the color of one’s skin. Add to that the traditional religious beliefs of many service members, which the majority are far more conservative and traditional than much of the general public. In fact, military tradition is drummed into their heads from the time they step foot off the bus at their basic training base.

Talk to most of the warfighters and they will tell you they really could care less about who someone sleeps with, they’re just tired of hearing about it. They’re tired of it being pushed down their throats. There is a whole month – Pride Month – dedicated to the LGBTQ community, and only one day to Veterans, one day for remembering our war dead, one day to celebrate our nation’s independence.

Maybe it’s time for the senior leadership to quit listening to special interest groups and liberal politicians both inside and outside of the armed forces who are pushing a social agenda, and start listening to the warfighters who just want to be given the tools and training they need to make them more lethal to our enemies.

And maybe it’s also time to leave the rainbow flags to the civilian world, and the only flag our military recognizes, flies proudly on our bases, on our ships at sea, and that is defended to their last breath, is the Stars and Stripes.