Plug-in tanks, drag shows and physically unfit leaders promoted to boost diversity have shifted the U.S. military’s focus “on the wrong things,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday. The previously misdirected focus, critics say, accelerated under Presidents Obama and Biden when they prioritized ideological policies such as diversity, equity and inclusion over military readiness.

Women in combat

In 2013, the military lifted its ban on women in combat, opening up jobs previously performed only by men, including special forces, and lowering fitness standards for women seeking access to those roles.

Opponents of the policy said that opening those roles to women would weaken the nation’s combat forces by reducing readiness standards. Proponents said it was a long-overdue move that recognized the tremendous contributions and skills of women in the military.

The Marines unsuccessfully sought an exclusion to the new rule based on their own data that showed mixed-gender teams of Marines underperformed at combat-related tasks previously closed to women.

The Marine study found integrated units were slower, particularly in tasks that involved carrying and utilizing weapons and ammunition.

Women struggled to scale an 8-foot wall obstacle without help and slowed down the mixed-gender Marine squads when evacuating a simulated casualty that weighed 200 pounds.

Women also ended up with an injury rate of 40.5%, more than double the 18.8% rate for men.

Mr. Obama defended the move in 2016 and said it helped to recruit and retain women in the service.

“As a consequence of women serving in our military and opening up what used to be closed situations to them, we’ve gained a lot of talent,” Mr. Obama told soldiers at Fort Lee in Virginia.

Mr. Hegseth on Tuesday said women can serve in combat, but must achieve the same fitness and readiness standards as men.

Military personnel in combat jobs, he said, must “execute their service fitness tests at a gender-neutral, age-normed, male standard.”

DEI

In June 2020, Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced an initiative aimed at improving diversity and equality in the military and removing biases and prejudice within the six branches.

The initiative expanded significantly during the Biden administration.

The president ordered all military branches to open DEI offices and plans to advance equity in the military.

By 2022, Pentagon spending on DEI programs rose to $68 million. By 2024, DEI spending increased to $115 million.

The military’s service academies began incorporating critical race theory and “white privilege” talking points into lesson plans and instructional materials. Lectures at West Point examined “white power” and “white rage.”

Drag shows and drag queen story hours were allowed on military bases until 2023, when Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin banned them following intense criticism from Republican lawmakers.

In 2021, Mr. Austin ordered a department-wide “stand down” to delve into “extremism” in the ranks of the military following the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, which involved some active-duty service members and military veterans.

“For over ten years, the drive to obsess over the racial and sex-based composition of military formations has broken readiness. Military leaders lied to themselves, each other, and the public to say standards would never change, all the while defining the success of organizations based on innate characteristics,” said Will Thibeau, director of the American Military Project at the Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life. “At long last, it seems as if that era is over.”

Transgender service members

Mr. Obama lifted the ban on transgender service members, but it was reversed by Mr. Trump in his first term, before it could be fully implemented. Mr. Biden lifted the ban when he took office in 2021. He allowed transgender individuals to serve in the military and receive transgender care, including sex-change operations, hormone therapy and mental health counseling.

In February, the Defense Department said 4,240 transgender individuals were serving in the military, and about 25% required surgery. The department reported spending $52 million on transgender care involving service members over the past decade.

Critics argued that transgender individuals suffer from a costly medical condition that should disqualify them from service and that gender dysphoria is often accompanied by mental health problems and higher rates of suicide.

Mr. Trump again banned transgender troops when he took office a second time in January. The ban was held up by the Supreme Court in May.

Climate Change

In 2012, the Defense Department issued the first “Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap,” and more than a decade later, it had put in place an increasing number of programs aimed at reducing the military’s carbon footprint. During the Obama years, the Navy instituted a plan to generate half of its energy from non-fossil fuel sources. Mr. Austin, then the Defense Secretary, issued a memo declaring climate change “an existential threat to our national security.” He ordered the military to adhere to a Climate Adaptation Plan now scrubbed from the Defense Department’s website.

During the Biden administration, the Defense Department was working with automakers to develop “the next generation of tactical and non-tactical vehicles,” powered by electricity, not gasoline, according to the Modern War Institute at West Point.

The U.S. military is the largest institutional consumer of fossil fuels on the planet, and under Mr. Hegseth, it will probably stay that way. He’s scrapped plans for the military to use all-electric tanks by 2050. The Army did not respond to an inquiry about the ongoing development of hybrid tanks.

Woke recruiting

Beginning in 2021, the military began running recruitment ads intended to increase diversity and to help reverse a historic recruitment slump. One U.S. Army animated recruitment featured a female soldier who was raised by a lesbian couple.

In May, the Defense Department released a new ad featuring service member toughness, intensive training, and Mr. Hegseth pledging an end to wokeness in the military.

“No more distraction, no more electric tanks, no more gender confusion, no more climate change worship. We are laser-focused on our mission of warfighting,” he said.

The military has so far exceeded recruitment goals this year.

• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.