"Keeping the World Safe! With short hair and shiny shoes."
I care much more about Landnav and Desert Survival than I do about understanding the 'feelings' of transgender people. I'm glad we finally have someone who understands this.
The military isn't supposed to be an equal opportunity social club. Just the opposite. It used to be designed to weed out those who can't cut it and those who don't belong, so that only the very best can rise to the top. I hope we can get back to that. But it will take decades to reverse the politically correct social engineering policies that have been instituted since the late 70s.
These racial/gender preferences and politically correct policies began with Jimmy Carter at the end of the Vietnam war. Obviously, Jimmy Carter was the ultimate antiwar pacifist and, like Obama, he felt that the American military was a negative force in the world. Therefore, he wanted to correct the military by making them nice little mamby-pamby, politically correct, 'goodwill ambassadors' more than actual soldiers. And that attitude persisted all the way through all the various Presidents, and increased exponentially during the Obama administration. Obama didn't want us to kill the enemy. He wanted us to love, respect, and make friends with them. People were being expelled from the military for being "too militant". Wasn't that supposed to be the whole idea?
It will take time to flip back to being a 'real' wartime military. But if anyone can get it done, Mattis is the guy for the job.