Current Status: Ideologically driven politicians, aided by activists and media around them, frequently use the military as a test lab for questionable social policies. They seek to implement their progressive ideas concerning equality, sexual normalcy and ideological tolerance without regard to negative operational impact that may accompany such policies. Much of this social engineering is a real problem for the military and actually undermines the mission, erodes combat effectiveness, lowers morale, and reduces unit cohesiveness. These progressive politicians don’t seem to understand, or care that the fighting military is not a boardroom or workplace; it’s a place where soldiers and airmen fight, kill, and are killed. The discipline necessary to succeed in this environment has no room for social complications introduced by untested or truly unworkable social engineering.

Correction toward the Ideal: The military reflects the society that it represents. Forcing the military to accept a politically driven social agenda that society has yet to validate is unacceptable and will typically lead to serious problems. Social experimentation on combat soldiers causes a breakdown of military discipline and loss of combat effectiveness. The very nature of social experiments includes the possibility of failure—and in this endeavor failure means maimed and dead American soldiers, compromised missions, and overall degradation to our military ability and deterrence perception.

Supporting Information: See the Learn More section to the right for more information on this topic—especially our white paper on Social Engineering in the Military.