It’s become a common refrain in the conservative movement to publicly lambaste the United States military for purported weakness, which conservatives claim is evident in the Pentagon’s diversity and inclusion efforts.
Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, was most recently criticized for this after claiming the Biden administration’s concerns about white nationalists in the military harmed “readiness” and “recruitment.”
When a reporter asked the Republican senator whether white nationalists should be in the military, Tuberville said, referring to the Biden administration: “They call them that. I call them Americans.” (After facing backlash, Tuberville said he doesn’t believe “racism” belongs in the military.)
His apparently laissez-faire approach to bigotry in the military is a pretty accurate distillation of the GOP’s general view of the military’s diversity and inclusion efforts, despite the fact top military officials have spoken on countless occasions of these efforts’ usefulness in recruitment and retainment.
If service members are thinking and concerned about the experience their kids are having, they’re not going to be focused on their jobs.
Civilian lawmakers in the Republican Party, many of whom have never served and show no discernible credibility on how to run a modern-day military operation, are some of the loudest critics claiming such measures are a waste of time or injurious to morale.
(Check out my MSNBC colleague Steve Benen’s excellent post on the GOP’s anti-diversity crusade against the military from January.)
Fortunately, people better equipped to make these judgments are speaking up. Pentagon officials have been setting the record straight this week.
At the Center for a New American Security’s annual National Security Conference on Tuesday, a high-ranking Air Force official explained that the nationwide wave of anti-LGBTQ laws passed by conservative lawmakers could hurt the military’s…
Read the full article here