The U.S. military under the Democratic leadership of Joe Biden is continuing its trend of becoming highly politicized and going ‘woke’ even as global threats to America’s security rise and recruiting is in crisis.
According to Fox News, a slide presentation titled, “Diversity & Inclusion: What it is, why we care, & what we can do,” advises cadets to use “person-centered” as well as gender-neutral verbiage when discussing individuals.
“Some families are headed by single parents, grandparents, foster parents, two moms, two dads, etc.: consider ‘parent or caregiver’ instead of ‘mom and dad,'” one slide says, according to the outlet. “Use words that include all genders: ‘Folks’ or ‘Y’all’ instead of ‘guys’; ‘partner’ vs. ‘boyfriend or girlfriend.’”
The presentation also implores cadets to view others through the lens of race and ethnicity.
“Not ‘Colorblind’ or ‘I don’t see color,’ but Color Conscious,” it says. “We see Color/Patterns AND VALUE people for their uniqueness.”
The outlet continued:
The documents were shared with Fox News Digital by Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., a Green Beret and Afghan War veteran, who said the materials had alarmed cadets. Fox News Digital has verified the documents’ authenticity.
He noted in an interview with Fox News that “it’s been a tradition in the military to get letters from mom and dad or your boyfriend and girlfriend for as long as there’s been a military.”
“Now we’re instructing every cadet entering the Air Force to not say ‘mom’ and ‘dad,’ to not say ‘boyfriend’ or ‘girlfriend,’ and this kind of drive towards gender neutrality,” he told the news outlet. “I think the Air Force should be worried about the macro aggressions against America that are happening all over the world.”
The slide presentation also asks cadets to separate into small groups and try to come up with as many “G-animals” — animals that begin with the letter ‘G’ — in a minute.
“What does this activity show us about the power of combining our diverse perspectives?” the activity then asks. “If this were an operational USAF/USSF [United States Space Force] challenge (think COA [course of action] development) what risks might be present if we did not fully leverage the diversity of our group?”
Another slide in the presentation claims that diversity training is vital to “developing warfighters” so they can be “prepared to lead the USAF/USSF with character.”
“How can we Lift Others (motivate our teams) if we don’t know our people?” the presentation asks. “How can we Elevate Performance if we don’t include people during planning and execution?”
“Today we are preparing to face challenges that may not exist today,” the training goes on to say. “For example, Information Warfare only became a career field 7 years ago, and we stood up the Space Force in 2019. This makes our need to innovate critical. Thus, our leaders have deemed D&I a warfighting imperative.”
The training begins by advising cadets to keep it secret. They are assured that “what’s said here, stays in the room (let’s have each other’s backs),” while being instructed not to “share people’s stories with their name/identifiers).”
The training also asks cadets to respond to these and other prompts: “What I think about me in terms of who I am,” “What others think about me,” “What might be misunderstood about me” and “How squad/classmates can help me feel valued.”
In addition, the Air Force Academy offers a “Cadet Wing Diversity and Inclusion Program,” in which graduates are given a purple rope to wear over their left shoulder so as to be “symbolizing their position as a diversity representative” so that they can “advise students on diversity,” a press release noted.
Waltz told Fox News Digital that one of the more concerning aspects of the training is that it appears to establish a “separate, parallel chain of command.”
“To those of us who are a little bit older, it reminds us of what the Soviets used to do or what the Chinese do today, where they literally have political commissars inserted at every level end of the chain of command, but they have a separate reporting chain to ensure that the military is abiding by their ideology and their political doctrine,” Waltz said.
“Not only do they have diversity and equity officers in the cadet chain of command, they wear a special insignia, which is exactly what the political commissars — they would wear an armband in both the Soviet army and now in the Chinese Communist military. I just think there are some really alarming parallels,” he said.
“When we are in the majority, we are going to legislate this, and we are going to cut it out of the U.S. military,” he added.
The new emphasis on ‘wokeness‘ and increasing politicization comes at a time when the U.S. is facing the biggest threats to its national security in decades, as well as a major recruiting shortfall.
