Military needs a morale booster. You don’t win wars with social justice.

Via IJR:

Officials said on Friday that the military sought to delay new enlistment for transgender recruits in order to further assess how they and other service members could handle integration.

While former Defense Secretary Ash Carter permitted already-serving transgender troops to stay in the military, he punted the decision to allow new transgender recruits to enlist to the future administration. Officials told, on the condition of anonymity, the Associated Press that military chiefs discarded a two-year delay to avoid political backlash and agreed on a six-month time period that will face final approval from Defense Secretary James Mattis.

The new policy would push back a July 1 deadline that Carter set for the military. “It’s been a very deliberative process,” the Pentagon’s chief spokeswoman, Dana White, said. White indicated that Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work delayed the transition because he hadn’t made a formal recommendation to Mattis.

Work met with the heads of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Air Force on Thursday to discuss the issue. Both the Army and the Air Force proposed a two-year delay.

The AP reported that military officials had concerns about the following:

Key concerns are whether currently enlisted troops have had medical or other issues that cause delays or problems with their ability to deploy or meet physical or other standards for their jobs. Military leaders also want to review how transgender troops are treated, if they’re discriminated against or have had disciplinary problems, the officials said.