It seems the US Air Force is not looking for talented, skilled, high-performing individuals for its senior positions – the best and the brightest – instead, the less qualified and duller. Despite the evidence that personnel selection based on identity and not merit results in poor outcomes, the Air Force is looking to put checks in the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) box. So, if that’s the goal, then by definition, excellence in action and mission are not the goals. Demonstrable skills and prior performance are not the hiring measures. That the Air Force intends to pay more than $100,000 per hire should mandate a head nod toward qualified candidates. But, alas, that is not the intent – bowing to the woke diversity gods is. For example, Peter Kasperowicz reporting for Fox News explained:
“In Alaska, the Air Force is looking for another diversity and inclusion manager for Elmendorf Air Force Base. That manager, who will make anywhere from $93,367 to $121,378 per year, will be the chief DEIA (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Activities) officer who will perform a ‘range of functions to facilitate and support the achievement of the Installation/Wing Diversity and Inclusion mission.'”
Air Force Ensuring Merit is Not a Criteria for Hiring
In other words, the Air Force is looking for managers who will work very hard to ensure merit and performance are not part of the hiring process. There was a time when the motto of the Air Force was “To Fly and Fight,” not “to falter and fail.” But when excellence is not the goal for filling out the ranks of airmen on whom the nation depends, faltering and failing becomes the default option. There is no other compelling conclusion. Furthermore, when finding the best candidate for a job is not the goal, the result often is precisely what diversity, equity, and inclusion thinking attempts to avoid. As Liberty Nation pointed out in its observation entitled, “Pentagon Chooses Anti-White Diversity Chief,” when diversity is the purpose of hiring, it should not be surprising when identity-based choices for Pentagon leadership turn up a radically anti-white candidate.
Consequences of DEI Thinking
Elon Musk (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
There are second-order consequences when organizations adopt misguided purposes like DEI. They are likely to adopt notions damaging to the critical fabric of US national security. “Moreover, the Department of Defense (DOD) recognizes diversity and inclusion (D&I) as strategic imperatives,” the Executive Summary of a recent Department of Defense Board on Diversity and Inclusion Report states, “to ensure that the military across all grades reflects and is inclusive of the American people it has sworn to protect and defend.” This statement is foolish on its face. Diversity is not a strategic imperative – and the military does not want to reflect the American people as a whole. That drives to the lowest common denominator candidate. Having a military with the competence, training, best equipment, leadership, and experience to meet and defeat an enemy on the battlefield is the goal. “Your strategic imperative is defending the United States,” Elon Musk rightly tweeted eloquently and succinctly.
The American armed forces will meet an equipped, determined, and single-minded enemy, whether Chinese, Russian, Iranian or North Korean. Citizens of the US whose future depends on having the capability to defeat those enemies must have confidence in America’s warfighters. Having DEI as a strategic imperative means that a skilled, competent, experienced military with the will to win the nation’s battles is relegated to an accidental by-product. If the US is going to survive in a dangerous world, it needs to focus on a quality fighting force, first and foremost.
The views expressed are those of the author and not of any other affiliation.
