Compare and Contrast

Ah, eleven years ago in the "Peace Dividend" the Military was "too white and too male."

Now, after a decade of combat the Military is "too white and too male."

And my favority Congressman, Rep Allen West has this to say:
“Everyone that comes into the military has an equal opportunity to get promoted to the next level. It is not about outside entities trying to engineer and design results and outcomes or create a sense of equal achievement and when some military diversity group writes a report saying there are too many white men on top,” West said. “It is kind of a slap in the face to those who have risen through the ranks such as four star General [Lloyd] Austin, [General] Kip Ward, many others. We don’t need these outside entities trying to design or shape a military.”
West continued by noting that many confuse privileges with rights. To West, it is a privilege to serve in the military. He also said it is not an institution with which outsiders should tinker, especially while engaged in conflicts abroad.

I have wondered why minorities disproportionately enlist into support occupations, and I asked a black officer who told me straight up, "Old people in the Black Community tell young black men not to join the Infantry because you will be sent to the front lines as cannon fodder."  I have to take his word on it because my lily white ass doesn't count as any sort of minority.

And people enlist for very different reasons.  When I enlisted I wanted to work with technology, so I ended up in the Signal Corps working MSE switches.  After a few years when I figured some things out about the Army it became clear that even though life sucked more in the combat arms the camaraderie is the best.  So I requested Infantry as my branch choice when I commissioned and I was lucky enough to be accepted.

And white men enlist into the Infantry for various reasons, but it always boils down to the base 4.

Remember, the leftists hated the draft because it wasn't fair to minorities or some sort of nonsense (I think they just hated the draft because the concept of civic responsibility is foreign to most leftists).  Now they hate the ALL VOLUNTEER force because it isn't as diverse as the country as a whole.

Newsflash idiots, NOWHERE IN THIS COUNTRY REPRESENTS THE COUNTRY AS A WHOLE.  Chicago does NOT look like Seattle or Houston.  The idea that people will homogenize immediately into the melting pot is proven false by reality.  Change takes time.  Of course some people just can't accept that when enough individuals make individual choices larger trends may sometimes appear.

According to NPR the Military is MORE DIVERSE and BETTER EDUCATED than EVER.

The most highly decorated combat Regiment of WWI was the Black 369th Regiment.

The most highly decorated unit from WWII was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team "Go For Broke!" composed of Asian Americans.  Warriors come in all colors.  I think this poem is appropriate. 

Yanks
by James Foley

O'Leary, from Chicago, and a first-class fightin' man,
For his father was from Kerry, where the gentle art began:
Sergeant Dennis P. O'Leary, from somewhere on Archie Road,
Dodgin' shells and smellin' powder while the battle ebbed and flowed.

And the captain says: "O'Leary, from your fightin' company
Pick a dozen fightin' Yankees and come skirmishin' with me;
Pick a dozen fightin' devils, and I know it's you who can."
And O'Leary, he saluted like a first-class fightin' man.

O'Leary's eye was piercin' and O'Leary's voice was clear:
"Dimitri Georgoupoulos!" And Dimitri answered "Here!"
Then "Vladimir Slaminsky! Step three paces to the front,
For we're wantin' you to join us in a little Heinie hunt!"

"Garibaldi Ravioli!" Garibaldi was to share;
And "Ole Axel Kettleson!" and "Thomas Scalp-the-Bear!"
Who was Choctaw by inheritance, bred in the blood and bones,
But set down in army records by the name of Thomas Jones.

"Van Winkle Schuyler Stuyvesant!" Van Winkle was a bud
From the ancient tree of Stuyvesant and had it in his blood;
"Don Miguel de Colombo!" Don Miguel's next of kin
Were across the Rio Grande when Don Miguel went in.

"Ulysses Grant O'Sheridan!" Ulysses' sire, you see,
Had been at Appomattox near the famous apple-tree;
And "Patrick Michael Casey!" Patrick Michael, you can tell,
Was a fightin' man by nature with three fightin' names as well.

"Joe Wheeler Lee!" And Joseph had a pair of fightin' eyes;
And his granddad was a Johnny, as perhaps you might surmise;
Then "Robert Bruce MacPherson!" And the Yankee squad was done
With "Isaac Abie Cohen!" once a lightweight champion.

Then O'Leary paced 'em forward and, says he: "You Yanks, fall in!"
And he marched 'em to the captain. "Let the skirmishin' begin."
Says he, "The Yanks are comin', and you beat 'em if you can!"
And saluted like a soldier and first-class fightin' man!