The American military is widely seen as the last bastion of institutional integrity—and even conservatism—in the federal government. Although public faith in the military has dipped by a third in recent years, over 60% of Americans still have confidence in our fighting force. Only small business benefits from a higher degree of trust from the public.

In Congress, the military still enjoys vast bipartisan deference when it comes to promotions and budget votes. Even though General Charles Q. Brown, as Air Force chief of staff, signed into policy a blatant system of race- and sex-based quotas, only eleven senators opposed his promotion last year to succeed Mark Milley as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The annual National Defense Authorization Act passes both houses of Congress without meaningful opposition, no matter its wasteful pork or misguided priorities. Conservatives are told to trust the institution—after all, we need troops and weapons.

But now comes Unfit to Fight by Amber Smith, a former Army helicopter pilot and senior Trump Pentagon official, to shake Americans and their elected representatives out of their complacency by exposing, as her subtitle has it, How Woke Policies Are Destroying Our Military. The case Smith presents is so complete and disturbing, one wonders how the decline of such a critical institution took place