U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks) took to Twitter on Tuesday afternoon, citing concerns about the U.S. military’s ability to recruit due it its “going WOKE.”

“Joe Biden has our military going WOKE, and the results are as expected,” Rogers tweeted. “Nobody wants to sign up for indoctrination by the radical left through CRT and gender identity training, and now our military is falling behind. It’s time to end the wokeness and make our military STRONG again!”

Rogers shared an article by Fox News that explains that confidence in the U.S. military and willingness to join are down compared to 2018. A retired Navy SEAL told the outlet that health problems and “cultural rot” could be to blame.

A 2022 report from the Heritage Foundation cited several instances of progressive “wokeness” creeping into the Armed Forces, dating back to the Obama administration in 2015 when the Department of Defense (DOD) opened all combat jobs to women and committed to “gender-neutral standards” of determining whether a soldier is fit for combat.

Obama also initiated the move to allow transgenders in the military. This was put on hold by President Donald Trump, but President Joe Biden signed an executive order hours after his inauguration doing away with those restrictions. Biden also ended restrictions prohibiting individuals infected with HIV from serving in combat zones and “watered down” fitness standards.

According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the U.S. military is experiencing the worst recruiting crisis since 1973. 

“In FY 2022, the Army missed its recruiting goals by nearly 20 thousand soldiers - nearly 25 percent of the service’s recruiting goal,” reported CSIS in March. “While the other services were able to meet their FY 2022 recruiting targets, they did so by drawing on delayed entry recruits - those recruits with signed contracts who were not expected to enter service until FY 2023 - indicating that the challenges experienced in FY 2022 may only increase in the coming year. Early indications are that FY 2023 is as bad or worse.”

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