On April 29, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced that he was canceling Defense Department participation in actions generated by the Women, Peace and Security Act of 2017. Hegseth posted on social media that it was “yet another woke divisive/social justice/Biden initiative that overburdens our commanders and troops — distracting from our core task: WAR-FIGHTING. WPS is a UNITED NATIONS program pushed by feminists and left-wing activists. Politicians fawn over it; troops HATE it.”

Journalist Walter Pincus, who spent 40 years at the Washington Post covering topics ranging from nuclear weapons to politics, wrote in a recent column that Trump and Hegseth’s defense strategy is riddled with irrelevant political considerations resulting in a series of strange moves that must surely weaken national security.

In fact, as Pincus points out, what Congress had in mind in the Women, Peace and Security Act was to increase women’s participation in preventing and resolving conflict, countering violent extremism and building post-conflict stability around the globe. It is hard to believe that the program was “pushed by feminists and left-wing activists” when Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem co-sponsored the bill when she was in Congress, and President Trump signed the measure in 2017.

Perhaps reminded of this doctrinal dilemma, Hegseth pivoted in a later tweet, arguing that “the woke & weak Biden Administration distorted & weaponized the straight-forward & security-focused WPS........

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