BY LARRY JOHNSON

I have been away from the office for most of the day and am only now (shortly after midnight, it is now Tuesday morning on the east coast of the US) getting through my email and must read material. I want to flag an important article written by a Mr. Will Thibeau, who, according to his bio:

is the Director of the American Military Project at the Center for the American Way of Life. The American Military Project exists to systematically expose, evaluate, and eliminate the manifestations of wokeness in the personnel, programs, and policies of the US Military.

Here are the key points of his piece (I encourage you to read the entire article):

The Afghanistan debacle was dramatic, but it was only one small part of a much larger picture. The United States Armed Forces were once the envy of the world, in large part because we selected the best of the best, and instilled in our fighting men an unshakeable military ethos. Both the ethos and the selection, however, have been in steady decline as the Department of Defense succumbs to a dangerous ideology: that of group quotas, or forced outcome equality for identity groups based on race and sex.

Critics of the current state of affairs in our Armed Forces waste precious breath on disturbing but minor issues like reading lists, drag shows, and TikTok trends. This paper serves as a call for focus and precision on the prevalence of race and sex-based quotas, and the accompanying collapse in professional standards, in the fight to reclaim the integrity of the institution of the military. . . .

Nowhere are the consequences of hiring anyone but those selected for their professional qualifications higher than in the wars our military may soon fight. In May of this year, the Daily Caller reported on the Air Force’s efforts to diversify flight school. The Air Force created classes that mirrored the race and gender demographics of the nation. This manipulation of the most critical talent of our military produced consecutive flight school classes below sustainable levels, far below average. This brutal case study is a harbinger of things to come in a military whose organizing principle is diversity rather than merit. 

DEI is just that in the military: an organizing principle with specific manifestation in the prevalence of identity-based quotas and the attendant collapse in standards. Future Defense officials, lawmakers, and interested Americans must have a clear understanding of the current personnel and policy landscape to meaningfully effect change. . . .

As of the 2020 United States Census, men make up 49.6% of the overall population. The 2022 U.S. Military Demographic Report, meanwhile, counts over 82% of the active military as male. In the officer classes of all branches of the military in 2022, just over 80% were male, along with 82.9% of enlisted personnel.

The branch that exhibits the greatest gender disparity is the Marine Corps, where just over 90% of active service members were male. The gap is even wider in the highest ranks: In the Marine Corps specifically, over 96% of the highest-ranked generals were male. The Navy had the next highest disparity, with over 93% of its highest-ranking officers as male. The Air Force had the lowest percentage of male generals with an O7-O10 rank at just over 88%.

Similar disparities exist among the top ranks when it comes to race. In the United States at large, 75.3% identify as white, compared with 68.8% of uniformed service members. When organized into the enlisted and officer classes, white members of the military make up 75.1% of all officers and 67.4% of all enlisted members.

Within the highest ranks of the generals, the O7-O10 pay grade, over 87.9% across all the branches identify as white. At these ranks, only 12.1% consider themselves as minorities, with African Americans being the most substantial at 7.7%. Compare this against the 31.2% of the force at large that identifies with a minority group, and the 17.3% of all service members who identify as black or African American.

The United States has come full circle since President Harry S Truman issued Executive Order 9981, which desegregated the US military. This move to halt the blatant discrimination against black Americans foreshadowed the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. Some scholars insist that Truman, who grew up under the influence of grandparents that were avid supporters of the Confederacy and spoke contemptuously of blacks, only took this step in order to win the votes of black Americans. Despite his own record of making overtly anti-black remarks, he ordered a halt to discrimination against blacks and the military responded by integrating previously segregated units. 

If you want to read more about Truman’s move to de-segregate the US military, read this link, Why Harry Truman Ended Segregation in the US Military in 1948. Truman, notwithstanding his flaws, showed moral courage in taking this action — he may have garnered votes from black Americans, but lost support among the Southern Dixiecrats.

The push to impose DEI as a standard for promotion has nothing to do with combating racism. It is a fundamentally racist policy because it treats people according to their outward appearance and rewards people accordingly. This is the very essence of racism.

I suppose there is a cynical, silver-lining to the push for DEI — i.e., the quality and capability of the US military is being degraded across the board, which means it will be less competent, less capable and more vulnerable to counter moves by Russia, China or Iran. Of course, it is also correct to note that the overall performance in foreign military adventures over the last 60 years has been dismal. While very few American military personnel have been killed or wounded in these misadventures, these military actions have resulted in more than a two million civilian casualties in Vietnam, Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan without securing any kind of meaningful peace or settlement. The over reliance on military force, in lieu of diplomacy, has weakened the United States standing in the world. Focusing on DEI will do nothing to alter that fact.

https://sonar21.com/the-crisis-in-the-us-armed-forces/

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