Across the pond, the UK military is undergoing an EU mandated review of it’s version of a combat exclusion law:
A ban on British servicewomen engaging in hand-to-hand combat with enemy forces is under review, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said .
Servicewomen are currently excluded from roles where there is a requirement to kill the enemy face-to-face, but a review is required every eight years under the European Community Equal Treatment Directive. The last review in 2002 retained the policy to employ only male personnel in certain close combat roles.
However, the minister of state for the armed forces, Bob Ainsworth said: “This review will include a thorough assessment of women’s roles in recent operations.
“It will also examine the attitudes of servicewomen and men and those of the commanders on the ground to assess the potential impact of mixed-gender teams on combat effectiveness.”
Just go back and re-read that prefatory sentence for a moment, if you will. Let it sink in.
Now.
Over in the Washington Post, Courtland Milloy takes the Naval Academy to task for the fundamental racism inherent to the system. At Navy.
“By building an institution that is more diverse than ever — more women, more Hispanics, more African Americans — the Naval Academy has reaffirmed a fundamental American truth: that out of many, we are one,” President Obama said at Friday’s graduation.
Lest we forget, however, before anything remotely resembling a diverse institution can be built, somebody has to take on the more arduous task of demolishing the institutional racism that stands in the way.
For evidence of ongoing institutional racism, Milloy cites the fact that between 1949 and 1968, only 0.2% of Naval Academy midshipmen were African American.
But never to fret Courtland, CNO is on the job:
In 2008, blacks made up roughly 8 percent of the Navy’s 42,343 officers — and only 6 percent of the admiralty. According to a report in the Navy Times, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead wants to see the number of black admirals increased to at least 10 percent by 2037.
That would certainly go a long way toward fulfilling one of the Navy’s primary missions as laid out by Obama in his commencement address: “to project American principles and values when you pull into that foreign port, because for so many people around the world, you are the face of America,” he said.
Right. Because unless the officer corps – and admiralty – perfectly reflects broader society through the colorblind application of merit-based ethnic selection and advancement quotas, the Navy will not be performing one of its primary missions. Any disparity in selection rates to either the academy or flag is non-rebuttable evidence of institutional racism. It has nothing to do with any academic achievement gap, nor the fierce competition between top tier schools for qualified applicants of color.
Speaking of which, I’m glad that Mr. Milloy could square me away with roles and missions, since I had long labored under the misconception that the primary mission of the Navy was to maintain, train and equip combat-ready naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression and maintaining freedom of the seas.
So I’m glad we got that straightened out.
Finally, and more broadly, the president has nominated the most qualified female hispanic candidate out of a pool of talented female candidates to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice David Souter. This will leave the court sadly short of personality and pigment challenged, ostensibly-conservative-but-in-reality-crypto-liberal northeasterners, but will go a step back towards making the court look more like America, what with Sandra Day O’Connor’s Irish female white conservative slot having been filled by male conservative ethnic Sam Alito.
Which I think we can all agree was a travesty.
In time perhaps, and with further retirements, the court can be made more perfectly gender balanced by the seating of 4.59 female jurists. From a practical perspective, we’ll probably have to round up to five, but for my own part, I think that the more Solomonic decision would be to nominate a transgendered sharia cleric, who would be able to kill two birds (and any number of adulteresses) with one stone.
Going forward, a fairer proportional representation of our diverse national character will probably have to involve greatly expanding the number of seats on the Supreme Court. Gone will be the days of 5-4 cliffhangers and power-balancing swing voters, but a system that sorts an individual’s access to power not by the content of his/her character, nor by merit and achievement but rather by those transcendental race/gender/ethnic/religion identity group accidents of her/his birth will lead to a more perfect union.
Just like it has in Lebanon.
Repeat after me: Diversity is strength.
It just has to be.
Would someone page the on-call plastic surgery attending and prep the OR team–there’s a guy here who’s got his tongue welded to the side of his cheek…
Plus call the sarcasm police to monitor this guy post-op–He could be dangerous.
Not sure about the weld, but I’m quite sure he’s strained it.
Dang it, that was supposed to be “sPrained.”
I’m a big fan of sarcasm – excellent job, Sir!
“Results 1 – 10 of about 58,600 for diversity is perversity. (0.18 seconds) ”
Math not being a strong point but Windows calculator handy, roughly 6/10ths of 1 percent of your search results to one more of my liking; it rolls of the tongue much better. (no big fan of “he whose name incites the passions of those commonly found beneath bridges”, but he’s not far off the mark on this one).
Lex,
You missed The One’s statement that he wanted (to paraphrase) more emotive jurists on the court. He complained that we have too many Supreme Court justices who only consider the law. It is not the law, but how you “feel” about its application that is now uppermost in his mind.
Fbl, it is hard to believe that Lex made the next post after this one. He’s probably exhausted his stock of “tongue in cheek” for awhile.”
Nice the see the morons pushing the the diversity perversity haven’t run out of brain synapses yet. At the rate they are going, though, I wouldn’t be sanguine about their future.
From the looks of things we have passed the tipping point. The left is really ginning up the corrosiveness of their policies. No kid with any brain should be going into the military these days. I’m glad my son is out.
Bos’ns whistle:
On the flight deck of the USS Diversity, Flight Quarters Flight Quarters, sleeves rolled down, helmets on, goggles on, now flight quarters. Today’s first launch will have 2 CAP with one manned by a female asian minority and Tajikistanian flight officer, and the 2nd with a caucasian/latino mix and black/filipino/japanese NFO. The Hummer will be manned by two flaming gays, ugh guys – not life partners, and 3 regular run-of-the-mill boring white guys in back (sorry SJS). PriFly is manned by we’re not sure what or whom, and as always CAG is a product of liberty in Singapore gone terribly wrong. CCG 13 is black (but light skinned), Harvard educated, Acorn indoctrinated, with a stint at the Diveristy University as Faculty Facilitator for Group Think.
OK, flight deck now sing together – “this land is your land, this land is my land ….”
Flight Quarters.
I’m beginning to feel like Rush Limbaugh vis a vis the failure comment.
Geesh, at least the retirement check still clears the bank.
G, that would be absolutely hilarious if it weren’t the not-so-distant future.
I just finished reading The Gatekeepers: Inside the Admissions Process of a Premier College by Jacques Steinberg and was appalled by how ‘diversity’ is now more important at elite colleges than grades & SAT scores. I hope that this isn’t what will now happen at the service academies.
I’ve got to stop reading “Diversity Thursday” articles over at Cdr Salmanders place… I learned a lot when I was in the Navy many years ago, but I am soooo happy to be wearing ACU’s now. Between Diversity is job one and “let’s see how badly we can screw up the aquisitions process” it’s just not the same canoe club I used to belong to.
4.59 could be attainable depending on how you factor in a gay Justice… not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Nothing new here…think… Colin Powell…a kind of right, albeit unexceptional, ok guy, at the absolutly right time… and of the … au courant color… upside all around for the diversity Gomers. Best
Not like we didn’t see this coming. Like standing handcuffed to the bow rail of the Titanic looking at the ‘berg in the merge… and the crew is deaf and blind.
Solomonic… You use that word, but I don’t think you know what it means.
Slice the transgendered sharia cleric in half, is what it should mean.
Twice as many stones to throw, as well.
For evidence of ongoing institutional racism, Milloy cites the fact that between 1949 and 1968, only 0.2% of Naval Academy midshipmen were African American.
And what does the admissions policies of Annapolis from 41 years ago have to do with the present day?