Republicans attack military for supporting diversity but experts say it leads to success

[babylonsister]

Republicans attack military for supporting diversity but experts say it leads to success
By Oliver Willis -
November 22, 2022 11:26 AM



A new report released by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) criticizes military efforts to increase diversity, even though the U.S. military itself, along with experts and military leaders, say increased diversity improves military effectiveness.

Rubio and Roy provided early access to the report, titled "Woke Warfighters," to Fox News, which has publicly campaigned against anti-LGBTQ equality for years.

"We need to spend more time thinking about how to counter Chinese aircraft carriers and less time thinking about pronouns," Rubio wrote in the report. Roy wrote, "[President Joe] Biden's woke Pentagon is using taxpayer dollars to promote blatant anti-American ideology."

The report features photos of Black and transgender military leaders and members and claims that programs aimed at diversity have become so much of a priority in the armed forces that they are undermining their fighting capability.

The Army has put emphasis on diversity in the military since before Joe Biden became president. In 2020, while Trump was in office, the Army launched "Project Inclusion," an initiative designed to increase diversity and equity across the branch.

In a document accompanying the program's announcement, the Army stated that it was important because "The strength of the Army comes from its diversity. Developing and maintaining qualified and demographically diverse leadership is critical for mission effectiveness and is essential to national security."

more...

https://americanindependent.com/republicans-attack-military-for-diversity-success/

[h2ebits]

1. In a new "report". . . .

Words are important. This sounds to me like an "opinion" piece not based on truth. Why is it being labeled a "report" rather than an "opinion?"

[onecaliberal]

2. We all know why.

[babylonsister]

4. It's a report generated by Rubio and Roy.

I don't know what the distinction would be between an opinion piece and a report, nor do I think 'truthiness' enters into it.

https://www.rubio.senate.gov/public/_cache/files/ee1d7a86-6d0c-4f08-bd15-24e5b28e54b7/3756824FA9C21B819BB97AAB16221530.woke-warfighters-report-3.pdf

[SCantiGOP]

3. Barry Goldwater, arch conservative, 60+ years ago

“I don’t care if someone is straight as long as they can shoot straight” - response when asked if he thought gays should be able to serve in the military. Obviously he would apply the same logic to gender and race.
This was back when conservatives had a consistent philosophy, and didn’t craft their message based on hate and fear.

[Mad_Machine76]

5. I'm not a huge fan of the military (in general)

BUT:

1. We need new recruits
2. America is an increasingly diverse country with people from different races, ethnicities genders, sexual orientations
3. Limiting who can serve for reasons other than general physical or mental fitness is stupid and shortsighted and will negatively affect the military's ability to recruit from an increasingly diverse pool of people and support them once they're there.
4. The military can do multiple things at one time and there's absolutely no evidence that promoting/ensuring diversity harms the military. We did away with racial bans decades ago, DADT 12 years ago and the Trans military ban 6 years ago (more or less given Trump's attempts to walk us backwards on that) and the sky hasn't fallen to anybody other than right wingers.
5. Supporting diversity within the ranks can only help improve unit morale and cohesion.

[underpants]

6. Thank you. There's an ongoing hissyfit being thrown here about VMI

They claim it’s about DEI at VMI….but it’s not.

VMI’s first Black superintendent under attack by conservative White alumni
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/11/20/cedric-wins-vmi-white-alumni-attacks/

This Army report is very helpful.

https://www.army.mil/standto/archive/2020/06/29/

[LetMyPeopleVote]

7. Diversity is a good thing

MAGA means going back to a world where only whites had power and there were fewer non-whites in the military

[ThoughtCriminal]

8. Meanwhile, the Russian Army

Which the American Right-wing seemed to admire so much, is falling apart when it tried to invade what it thought was a an easy win.