There was one admiral (black, by the way) who resigned/retired rather than carry out illegal orders (the extrajudicial killing of people in boats off South America). Unfortunately that action seems to be unique.
On a day when the news is about the firing of Scott Pelley and the further erosion of free speech, this brings to light just why we need free speech. This is the type of story that 60 Minutes could be counted on to air. But quite frankly, the even bigger problem is that this article really informs about the struggles the military is having in an easy to understand way, and the implications are a far bigger concern than an hour long program could do justice. That Hegseth would choose to reshape the military is the elephant in the room. Racism and politics have no place in the military. The military needs the best qualified soldiers, not newbies that make Hegseth feel like a leader. His inferiority complex is showing….
Great article as always, colonel. Every now and again, while trying to avert my eyes from obvious fuckery, it's good to get a full on splash in the face to wake back up and engage.
"he is making promotion decisions to counterbalance alleged previous social engineering based on diversity criteria. Which means race and sex are being considered."
Isn't that the definition of DEI--subordinating (or at least downgrading) merit to fix the problems caused by previous injustice?
I think “DEI” isn’t that at all. It’s just an acronym representing three concepts which have always been important to organizations but were co-opted in social justice narratives. There was nothing controversial about these ideas before they were chain-fed as culture war ammo.
I was at law school 5-6 years before George Floyd. I had and expressed two objections to the social justice movement at that time. First, that “Critical Race Theory” was illegitimate. It purported to replace individual agency with inherited moral culpability based on immutable characteristics. Which is just racism by another name. Second that the favored tactic of campus protests — suppressing, cancelling, shaming, ostracizing anyone who didn’t agree — was spring-loading a backlash that would make things worse.
Here we are. Well-meaning people with well-intentioned ideas that paved the road to the Hell we are in. It’s one thing to educate, have dialogue, build empathy. But it goes too far to start raising the specter of social engineering.
There’s not much if any evidence that DEI resulted in false military promotions.
But the idea and threat of it all fed lunatic theories about replacing white men and rapidly crushing the existing order of things. Fear is a powerful drug, and sits adjacent to anger. Cynics preyed on all that.
Now we’re totally screwed. Actual discrimination is being committed as a response to the mere fear of reverse discrimination. And the actual discrimination being committed is re-victimizing historically underrepresented groups while reducing military effectiveness. It’s also morally injuring the services and reducing their national esteem.
The good news is that it’s exposing how we’ve raised generations of spineless officers. If we’re still here when the dust settles, we will have a better idea what needs done and would no longer be able to deny it.
We get what we've paid for. Project 2025 told us what was going to happen. We ignored it. Now, it's happening.
"Gen. Wilsback should resign"
There was one admiral (black, by the way) who resigned/retired rather than carry out illegal orders (the extrajudicial killing of people in boats off South America). Unfortunately that action seems to be unique.
On a day when the news is about the firing of Scott Pelley and the further erosion of free speech, this brings to light just why we need free speech. This is the type of story that 60 Minutes could be counted on to air. But quite frankly, the even bigger problem is that this article really informs about the struggles the military is having in an easy to understand way, and the implications are a far bigger concern than an hour long program could do justice. That Hegseth would choose to reshape the military is the elephant in the room. Racism and politics have no place in the military. The military needs the best qualified soldiers, not newbies that make Hegseth feel like a leader. His inferiority complex is showing….
Great article as always, colonel. Every now and again, while trying to avert my eyes from obvious fuckery, it's good to get a full on splash in the face to wake back up and engage.
"he is making promotion decisions to counterbalance alleged previous social engineering based on diversity criteria. Which means race and sex are being considered."
Isn't that the definition of DEI--subordinating (or at least downgrading) merit to fix the problems caused by previous injustice?
I think “DEI” isn’t that at all. It’s just an acronym representing three concepts which have always been important to organizations but were co-opted in social justice narratives. There was nothing controversial about these ideas before they were chain-fed as culture war ammo.
I was at law school 5-6 years before George Floyd. I had and expressed two objections to the social justice movement at that time. First, that “Critical Race Theory” was illegitimate. It purported to replace individual agency with inherited moral culpability based on immutable characteristics. Which is just racism by another name. Second that the favored tactic of campus protests — suppressing, cancelling, shaming, ostracizing anyone who didn’t agree — was spring-loading a backlash that would make things worse.
Here we are. Well-meaning people with well-intentioned ideas that paved the road to the Hell we are in. It’s one thing to educate, have dialogue, build empathy. But it goes too far to start raising the specter of social engineering.
There’s not much if any evidence that DEI resulted in false military promotions.
But the idea and threat of it all fed lunatic theories about replacing white men and rapidly crushing the existing order of things. Fear is a powerful drug, and sits adjacent to anger. Cynics preyed on all that.
Now we’re totally screwed. Actual discrimination is being committed as a response to the mere fear of reverse discrimination. And the actual discrimination being committed is re-victimizing historically underrepresented groups while reducing military effectiveness. It’s also morally injuring the services and reducing their national esteem.
The good news is that it’s exposing how we’ve raised generations of spineless officers. If we’re still here when the dust settles, we will have a better idea what needs done and would no longer be able to deny it.
Correct! And the point was that they were lying by saying that merit was the sole criteria, not anything about the definition of DEI.