What Happens to An Army When Race Matters And Merit Doesn't Count?

The U.S. military in many ways has always been one of America’s meritocracies, at least since President Eisenhower put VP Richard Nixon in charge of desegregating it. As in any organization, there was always a certain amount of politics involved, with Democrat presidents promoting Democrat generals and Republican presidents leaning towards Republicans, but by and large there was always the goal of the best and brightest rising to the top, and in many cases that goal was realized.

Things have changed.

Ive already written before about how admission standards to get into Annapolis have been lowered for minority candidates based strictly on race in the name of diversity.

It appears now that the Army has decided to follow the trend… no doubt prompted by the Obama Administration. They’re now concerned that there are too many white officers and not enough black ones, and we can’t. have. that.

So they’re apparently going to do what the Navy did. They will start by lowering standards to get into West Point, or as they told USA Today, “One of the Army’s plans for addressing the issue will be to put more emphasis on recruiting and mentoring minority officers.”

I think we canall translate what that means in reality.

The Army reports that only 10 percent of its active-duty officers are black, which has contributed to its dearth of black officers leading soldiers with occupational specialties in infantry, armor and artillery.

“It certainly is a problem for several reasons,” Col. Irving Smith, director of sociology at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, told USA Today. “First we are a public institution. And as a public institution we certainly have more of a responsibility to our nation than a private company to reflect it. In order to maintain their trust and confidence, the people of America need to know that the Army is not only effective but representative of them.”

And here you thought the Army’s primary responsibility was to protect the country, and to pick the very best soldiers to lead it regardless of race? Not in the age of Obama. Job one is now ‘social justice’ and racial bean counting.

No one is even alleging that the Army has discriminated against black soldiers. No, they’re being pressured for a very different and obvious reason.

The American people, or at least the vast majority aren’t losing trust and confidence in our military because there were too many white people leading it, or because their aren’t enough black officers. Nor are they worrying about the military’s ability to defend the country, and one big reason for that is because they perceive the military as a meritocracy where the best and brightest succeed. Ah, but these issues are a primary concern of the Obama Administration which views everything through two prisms – race and politics.

This amounts to changing the nature of our military politically….forcing dozens of experienced officers and generals out of the service and into early retirement while replacing them with people the Regime feels are more likely to support them politically. And if it means that spaces at West Point, the other service academies and Officer Candidate Schools are taken up by people who are less qualified than others strictly on racial grounds, that isn’t a concern.

Watch what happens to the quality of our volunteer military and to the American people’s perception of it if this trend continues.