Perhaps no issue in the upcoming presidential election is more critical than the ability of the next president to prevent World War III.

As we teeter on the edge of this real possibility, we need to face the reality that the US military has lost its edge as the world’s most powerful under the Biden administration.

And it would only get worse under a Harris presidency.

This month, Kamala Harris tapped Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate, a man who’s repeatedly fudged details of his own military career and who infamously slow-rolled activation of the National Guard as his state went up in flames following George Floyd’s death.

With Walz joining Harris on the ticket, a Democrat victory would prove disastrous for the military.

As tensions flare across the world, we need a commander in chief who’ll protect our nation through strength and allow our military to prioritize operational readiness over the leftist social agenda the Biden administration has ushered into the ranks.

Though we were promised “DEI will make us stronger,” the evidence strongly suggests otherwise.

A Harris-Walz administration would continue to decimate the Defense Department at one of the most precarious moments in our nation’s history.

Since the beginning of the Biden-Harris administration, conflict and outright hot wars have flared throughout the world.

Russia’s war in Ukraine has killed over 80,000 Ukrainians and cost the US more than $175 billion.

Israel is fighting Hamas — and Iran. China torments Taiwan and others in its neighborhood.

Under the Trump administration, Vladimir Putin was restrained.

He also bested President Biden and Harris in an unprecedented prisoner exchange this month, trading Russian murders and spies for the release of innocent Americans.

The Biden-Harris administration even reportedly allowed $3.8 billion worth of US currency to funnel into Taliban-led Afghanistan since December 2021, months after Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal.

That disorganized and deadly retreat was, indeed, one of the most embarrassing moments in American military history. 

Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel is also a significant US military failure.

It’s the job of the president to ensure his military and counterintelligence agencies detect and defend against such attacks, including those against allies, particularly when US citizens are at risk — as they were.

The US military had other priorities.

During the lead-up to the attack, it was instead focused on DEI and liberal politics.

In early 2022, the Biden-Harris Pentagon bragged that US service members had spent nearly 6 million man-hours on “stand-down” days and DEI training since Biden took office a year prior.

Expect more of the same under Harris, who has triumphantly stated that she believes in equity of outcome as opposed to equality of opportunity and meritocracy, essential bedrocks of our military.

America’s armed forces now face a recruiting crisis because the administration has abandoned the military dominance our nation could once claim.

Today, our military looks more like a grand experiment in wokeism than a fearsome fighting force.

Compare that to Trump, who commanded a military that neutralized terrorists, added an entirely new branch of service, inspired fear among enemies and gave soldiers a long overdue pay raise.

Think about it: President Biden has declared global warming the biggest threat to our nation — not China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, terrorists or even the prospect of nuclear war.

Harris regularly touts the Green New Deal as the solution to our nation’s troubles.

Her administration insists the military be carbon-neutral by 2050 — in line with Walz’s record as governor of Minnesota, where he signed a law that mandated 100% fossil-free electricity by 2040.

Don’t be surprised to see Team Harris-Walz reduce flight-training missions, keep ships in ports and convert our fleet military vehicles to all electric, all in the name of climate activism — and at the expense of military readiness and fighting prowess.

Harris and Walz’s records on LGBTQIA+ issues similarly align with the military’s current obsession with them.

Under Biden, the military organized drag-queen story hours on military bases and hired drag queens as recruiting ambassadors — all while eliminating tests of skill — to appease far-left activists.

The cost to our safety is yet undetermined, but as Marine Gen. George Smith Jr. has said, “Our future enemies will be the arbiters of such decisions.”

The president is more than the commander in chief, but without a strong military leader to ward off the real and growing threat of WWIII, the rest of it may not matter much at all. 

Andrew Cherkasky (@CherkaskyLaw) and Katie Cherkasky (@CherkaskyKatie) are military veterans, former federal prosecutors and current criminal-defense attorneys. They are authors of the book “Woke Warriors.”