Biden Pentagon officials in charge of military personnel policy defended pushing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the United States military during a House hearing on Thursday, arguing that it would make the military stronger, not more divided. However, they were short on data to back up their arguments.
Gil Cisneros, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, argued, “Diversity, equity and inclusion are essential to unit cohesion and trust.” The Honorable Gilbert R. Cisneros Jr. Opening Statement
The Army’s Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Agnes Schaefer argued, “A diverse and talented force of trained and cohesive teams is the most important indicator of our readiness.” The Honorable Agnes Schaefer Opening Statement
The Navy’s Assistant Secretary for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Franklin Parker argued that diversity would increase “our military readiness and maritime dominance by accessing the full range of our nation’s talent.” The Honorable Franklin R. Parker Opening Statement
The Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Alex Wagner insisted, “Our diversity and inclusion initiatives [are] informed by science and business best practices, congressional mandates, data-focused policy reviews and assessments, and the lived experiences of Airmen and Guardians.” The Honorable Alex Wagner Opening Statement
Yet, as House Armed Services Subcommittee for Military Personnel Chairman Jim Banks (R-IN) noted, the officials did not provide any data to back up their statements. Banks, who is a Navy reservist, stated at the end of the hearing:
The [Department of Defense] expended 5,359,311 man-hours for [Defense Secretary Lloyd] Austin’s extremism stand-down and an additional 529,711 man hours for DEI-specific training … None of you today have defended with any empirical evidence, any studies at all that defends a single man hour [or] over 6 million man hours of DEI training in the United States military.
“That’s why this hearing matters,” he added. “What’s the justification for that giant investment?”
Wagner, the Air Force official, during his opening statement shared a personal anecdote as a DEI success story.
He said at his prior job, his team was preparing to present a report at a technology festival and to garner interest (to promote military recruitment), decided to give out branded socks. He said they planned give out crew socks until a woman on his team privately pulled him aside and told him that women do not wear crew socks, but instead ankle socks. He said they decided to give out both crew socks and ankle socks and that the ankle socks were a hit.
He argued that this showed the value of DEI in the military. “We need every tool available to defend the nation,” he said.
— blue (@blue_prop) March 24, 2023
And while each Biden official said emphatically that DEI was a “positive” thing for military recruitment, there was a moment of awkward silence when Rep. Jack Bergman asked why then the military was struggling with recruitment.
Bergman then told them he would like to see actual figures to back up their statements to prove that it was not just “posturing.”
Cisneros, who is also the Department of Defense (DOD)’s chief DEI officer, was also short on answers to basic questions asked by Republican lawmakers.
Banks asked Cisneros how much the DOD was spending on DEI initiatives and how many DOD employees were dedicated to DEI. Cisneros said he did not have the figures in front of him and suggested he did not know because he also had another job as the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. . . . . (read more on Breitbart News)
About Alex Wagner
The Honorable Alex Wagner was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June 7, 2022, and sworn in as Assistant Secretary of the Air Force on June 10, 2022. As the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, he provides overall supervision for matters related to manpower, military and civilian personnel, Reserve component affairs and readiness support for the nearly 700,000 Airmen and Guardians in both the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Space Force. . . .
. . . . Additionally, he served in various positions in the Department of Defense during the Obama-Biden administration. In 2015, Mr. Wagner was appointed Chief of Staff to the Secretary of the Army, shaping policy and outreach for the Secretary while aligning the Army’s civilian and military leadership with the Secretary’s priorities, initiatives, and plans.
In this role, he was closely involved in developing and implementing policies opening all combat roles to women, enabling transgender Americans to openly serve their nation, and updating the Army’s uniform and grooming regulations to enhance recruiting and retention of soldiers of faith. . . . (Air Force Bio)
What People Are Saying
(Comments from the comment section)
“When I was in the Army Combat Signal Corps MERIT, the ability to get the job done, counted, not “diversity”. Thank GOD all we had to worry about was Soviet tanks pouring into Germany. We didn’t have to worry about “climate change”, “gender affirming” and diversity back then. America will soon have the most diverse Army of pansies on the planet, hopefully our enemies will die from laughing at us, that is our only chance.”
“I retired with 24 years and saw the ups and downs of the military as democrats came and went. I retired at the tail-end of Obama and it was bad then. Pushing the whole LGBTQ nonsense and handing out ‘stress cards’ to recruits. I really would have liked to see what it was like under President Trump’s tenure. I could only imagine how awful it is under the current idiot squatting in the WH on a stolen election. With the whole CRT, and gender this and that, it would be like walking on eggshells everyday.”
“Biden’s DEI political officers are the very same thing as the political officers in the old Soviet army. It is pure Stalinism.”
“I am so very glad that my military years are in the rear view mirror. There is no way I could or would ever serve in the milque toast military we have now.”
“DEI is essential for “Unit cohesion and trust” lmao, I choked on my coffee after reading for just 20 sec. These cake eaters have no clue and never will. Tip…..the best thing for “Unit cohesion and trust” ? Going through combat deployments together and coming back home alive and sharing a cold beer.”
“I told my nieces and nephews to stay far away from military service. That is sad since I served during Nam and was proud of my service, until now.”
“LOL. Good luck. DEI isn’t working where I work. You can see it through the halls as you walk through. Glad I retired from the military in early 2000s. Lord help us.”
“I’m a 10-year veteran and I am horrified to see the wokeness that has infiltrated every branch of our military. Is this nonsense was going on when I initially showed interest in military service…I would have told my recruiter to pound sand.”
“They’re lying. Officer Promotion Boards now require a picture of the candidate. It’s being done to breakout non-white candidates rather than looking at just their fitness reports.”
“These people don’t have a clue about reality. I was active duty army for about maybe 6 months in the early 1980s (for training then National Guard). There was diversity way back then. A large fraction of everybody probably a majority was minority and not just trainees also officers commissioned and not commissioned. I dealt with dozens of commissioned officers and the only white officers I recall was a doctor and a guy up on top of the jump tower doing safety checks. My point is the military has been diverse for a very long time. Later, I was at Navy OCS and again there were lots of minorities and women. They are doing this for politics not reality. They are not doing anything but opening closed wounds the politics of division.”
“We’ve had a red states military since the draft ended back in the early 1970s. So, good luck recruiting the masculine class into this bull s@#$. CMSgt (ret)”
1975-2003
“DEI is the American equivalent of a KGB officer implanted in every unit.”
“It’s never about diversity. It’s about ideological conformity.”
UN / WEF program to spay and neuter the US military, metastasis is deep, radical surgery is needed.