LTC Allen West: What this little pipsqueak has forced my Army to do disgusts me

Sadly, we are on a very disconcerting path. We’re turning our military into a playground for social adventurism. And do not compare this with the integration of blacks or women into our military service.

Ok, I am truly angered over this story, and it has me wondering Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot [WTF] is happening in my Army.

As reported by USA Today, “Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning has been assured she will receive gender reassignment surgery while in prison, her lawyer said late Tuesday.

Manning, convicted in the massive leak of national security secrets that propelled WikiLeaks to prominence, is serving a 35-year sentence at the Army’s prison at Ft. Leavenworth, Kan. She is eligible for parole in about six years. Manning ended a hunger strike begun last week after receiving assurances that the government would provide the surgery, said Chase Strangio, her lawyer and an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. Manning’s doctors recommended in April that she have the male-to-female surgery, Strangio said. No timeline has been set for her surgery, Strangio said.

Manning will meet with her doctors in the next week or two. Manning sued for access to hormone treatment, and the Army agreed to provide it last year. In July, the Pentagon repealed its ban on allowing transgender troops to serve. It also announced that it would begin medical treatment for transgender troops, including reassignment surgery.

There are between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender troops in the active-duty force of 1.3 million, according the RAND Corp. which conducted a study for the Pentagon on the issue.

Of those troops, RAND estimates that between 30 and 140 would like to seek hormone treatment, and 25 to 130 would seek surgery. The estimated annual price tag: $2.4 million to $8.4 million, per year. Treatment is estimated to cost as much as $50,000 per soldier. Treatment generally moves from counseling to hormone therapy, and in relatively rare cases, gender reassignment surgery. A military doctor must deem the treatment medically necessary.”

First of all, there is no Army PVT “Chelsea” Manning imprisoned at Ft. Leavenworth. The U.S. Army convicted PVT. Bradley Manning for leaking classified information. And now I am going to ask the hard question: is this why openly gay Eric Fanning was announced as the Secretary of the Army?

At a time when we’re concerned about funding our military — we shared here that Obama is dispatching the SecDef to fight against military funding – we’re going to spend $50,000 for troops suffering from a mental condition, gender dyspohoria, for sex change operations? Who the heck is this individual to sue the U.S. Army for their personal mental condition? If Bradley Manning wants to be a woman, that has nothing to do with the Army. If Bradley Manning wants to starve himself because he wants to be a woman, the American taxpayer is not on the hook for this folly. The U.S. Army does not exist to accommodate the personal pleasures of any one individual. Furthermore, Bradley Manning is a convicted felon who betrayed his country, and potentially endangered the lives of other Soldiers. As a convicted prisoner, you do not make demands!

What unnerves me to no end is that here you have an honorable young man such as Army 1LT Clint Lorance who also sits imprisoned in Ft. Leavenworth for doing what we send Soldiers to do — kill the enemy and protect his troops. Yet, we now have an Army led by these politicized chuckleheads who would acquiesce and allow this absurdity to happen. Someone, a resolute general should have told the ACLU lawyer, Chase Strangio (helluva name that is) to go pound sand, and get lost. A real SecDef or SecArmy would have told Strangio, stick your head in your fourth point of contact, we’re not providing any sex change surgery for Manning. Truly, the Army should NEVER have recognized Manning by any other name than Bradley. Imagine the precedent this now establishes — free gender reassignment surgery provided by the American taxpayer. Heck, just join on up and get your free surgery here — the heck with serving your nation.

And I truly do not give a damn what the progressive socialist leftist cowards will say in response to this post. You mean to tell me at this critical time when we have combat aviation maintenance crews scouring bone yards and museums, this is where we should be spending our taxpayer resources? You want to explain to me this is part of “providing for the common defense?” The U.S. military is not a happy place where we wanna make everyone feel good about themselves. We are not in a time of drafting anyone, so the force is all volunteer.

If you don’t want to adhere to the prescribed standards, well, don’t join. The military I knew was about taking individuals and conforming them into a unit, and organizing them into a cohesive element committed to doing a simple thing: provide a deterrent to aggression…and when deterrence fails, we enact violence on behalf of our nation.

Obama was right, he was going to fundamentally transform our America — and who among you would have ever thought our military – no, YOU — would be paying for sex change operations and hormonal therapy. Who would’ve ever thought a Soldier could whine and starve himself into making the U.S. Army surrender to his personal whims?

Doggone, General Patton whacked a Soldier for being a coward, sitting and crying in a field hospital among combat wounded. How have we come to this point? Of course, I can hear the accusations and denigrating comments, that I am some archaic Neanderthal and I need to get with the times.

We are fighting a doggone enemy that embraces a 7th century ideology and has restored such barbaric savagery you need “old school” warriors to kick their butts. The last thing we need right now is a military more focused on balancing lactation procedures over readiness, as the Army Times reported last year December.

Get this: “The Army’s updated breastfeeding and lactation policy forbids the use of restrooms as lactation spaces, offers suggestions on the duration of breaks for nursing mothers and requires commanders to provide such breaks at least until the child’s first birthday — addressing many issues raised by critics of the initial directive.

The first Army-wide guidance on the matter, a September memo from then-Army Secretary John McHugh, included a little more than a page of information, far shorter than installation policies either in place or in process at Fort Bliss, Texas, and other locations. It also offered fewer specifics than the rules used by other services; the Army was the last branch to implement servicewide regulations on the topic.

Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Mass., who pressed the Army to create such guidance, called it “a positive first step” at the time. Wednesday, her office put out a statement announcing the new policy, saying the revisions came after the initial effort “received sharp criticism from Army women and mothers.

”The changes, published in a Nov. 10 memo from acting Army Secretary Eric Fanning that rescinded the September guidance, went into effect immediately, Army spokesman Paul Prince said.”

Changes include:
• The non-restroom lactation area must include a flat space where the soldier can rest her breast pump, as well as “access to a safe water source within reasonable distance from the lactation space,” according to the memo. 

• “Commanders will insure that Soldiers have adequate time to express milk,” per the new guidance. 
• No prescribed break time is provided, but the guidance offers an example of a new mother expressing milk for 15 to 30 minutes every two to three hours. Breaks must be offered to new mothers until their child’s first birthday. 
• Commanders must inform pregnant soldiers of the breastfeeding policy “during initial pregnancy counseling.” 
• Soldiers are pointed toward military treatment facilities and Tricare for lactation support, counseling and other resources. 
• Soldiers participating in field exercises where storage of breast milk is not possible will be given time to express milk “with the intent to maintain physiological capability for lactation.”

I fully support our female Warriors becoming mothers while serving, but do we truly need a “lactation policy” to be issued from the office of the SecArmy?

Sadly, we are on a very disconcerting path. We’re turning our military into a playground for social adventurism. And do not compare this with the integration of blacks or women into our military service. We have truly gone towards a commitment to social egalitarianism and the implementation of the dream of progressive socialists — the fundamental breakdown and transformation of our U.S. military. The one redeeming fact is that this can and should all be reversed — and that decision is ours on November 8th.

Again, there is no Army PVT Chelsea Manning incarcerated in Ft. Leavenworth. The Army arrested, charged, tried, convicted and sentenced PVT Bradley Manning.

Dammit.

Allen Bernard West is an American political commentator, former member of the United States House of Representatives, and retired U.S. Army Lt. Colonel.