Report: Too many whites, men leading military

AP ^ | 7 March 2011 | Pauline Jelinek

[SkyPilot]

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is too white and too male at the top and needs to change recruiting and promotion policies and lift its ban on women in combat, an independent report for Congress said Monday.

Seventy-seven percent of senior officers in the active-duty military are white, while only 8 percent are black, 5 percent are Hispanic and 16 percent are women, the report by an independent panel said, quoting data from September 2008.

One barrier that keeps women from the highest ranks is their inability to serve in combat units. Promotion and job opportunities have favored those with battlefield leadership credentials.

The report ordered by Congress in 2009 calls for greater diversity in the military’s leadership so it will better reflect the racial, ethnic and gender mix in the armed forces and in American society.

Efforts over the years to develop a more equal opportunity military have increased the number of women and racial and ethnic minorities in the ranks of leadership. But, the report said, “despite undeniable successes ... the armed forces have not yet succeeded in developing a continuing stream of leaders who are as diverse as the nation they serve.”

“This problem will only become more acute as the racial, ethnic and cultural makeup of the United States continues to change,” said the report from the Military Leadership Diversity Commission, whose more than two dozen members included current and former military personnel as well as businessmen and other civilians.

[MrInvisible]

It’s going to happen because there is no organization that’s going to repulse this. That’s why the liberals advance steadily, they have a gazillion organizations pushing their agenda.

[Mark was here]

What a crock.

[SaveTheChief]

To clarify my #7...

The "idiocy" to which I was referring is the ongoing political correctness and societal engineering being perpetrated by the government on behalf of advocacy groups. It is utterly insane to believe that forced diversity is somehow a virtue and a strength, and will magically produce a result that has never occurred in all of recorded history.

It is wrong to promote, hire, or reward any person on the basis of race, color, creed, hat size, or anything other than their ability to do the job at hand better than any other available person on the planet.

[ANGGAPO]

AMEN.

[ANGGAPO]

To: blueunicorn6
“You can always tell when the liberals are losing.”

Good point. But on the other hand, when some of us look back over the past 20-30 years it appears they are winning the “long battle”.
And, doing so essentially via a process that must be similar to herding sheep.
Far better than herding cats. And easier too.

[Myrddin]

I grew up in a Navy family. My dad retired as a Commander after 26 1/2 years. Over his career, I watched the Navy morph into something I had no desire to pursue by the time I had graduated from college. The turning point occurred about the time Zumwalt became CNO.

[SkyPilot]

Yup. Did you catch this also?

The report ordered by Congress in 2009

So, Nazi Pelozi and Hairy Weed ordered this report, and the outcome was already authored before Congress paid this liberal racist group a few Bajillion Dollar$ of taxpayer money to write what matched their agenda.

[familyop]

Get a remote place, and become more self-sufficient.

[redgolum]

Looks like the US is going to die.

[Aetius]

Yeah, it’s hard to see how the Left is not winning. Other than the survival of the Second Amendment, name one social or cultural issue where the Left has not steadily progressed.

You could point to marriage, in that most states have voted to ban gay marriage, but so what? We are a bad day from Anthony Kennedy away from having a Sup Court imposition of gay marriage on the entire nation. And once that happens, it will never be undone, just like Roe.

So it is and will be with the military too. I mean, just look at the mindset expressed by General Casey after the Fort Hood slaughter, when he said that having less diversity (i.e. fewer Muslims in that case) in the military would be worse than the slaugther of all those people. I mean, WTF? But this is the mindset of the top ranks.

It is amazing that front line infantry, armor, artillery, and special forces units have not yet been opened up to women. In that regard you can chalk one up for our side, but it’s just a matter of time. I expect Obama to make this change before he leaves office.

[frog in a pot]

It is amazing that front line infantry, armor, artillery, and special forces units have not yet been opened up to women.

We know that female soldiers and aviators in Iraq were indeed placed in "hot" environments and certainly took fire. The ones I met who regularly travelled the roads were noticeably worse for the experience. There are/were USMC females and female Navy Corpsmen in country, but I am not sure whether, or how often, they got out into it. There are female Corpsmen in Afghanistan now who almost certainly are in it, even if they do not go outside the wire.

I think the only thing that keeps females out of the various special forces branches is the extreme physical training, and the physical requirements set out in the job description. You are right, that may somehow change in the near term.

[Aetius]

I think it will initially change under the lie that standards will not be lowered.

Then standards will actually remain in place but will be disregarded and ignored.

Or standards will remain and actually be enforced, resulting in just a few women making the cut. Then the standards would come under attack as unreasonable, not relevant, and existing only to keep women out. Then the standards will officially be jettisoned.