By Dr. Scott Sturman, MD, US Air Force Academy ’72
Marxists are masters of patience, disguise, and the use of seemingly innocuous terms to lull opponents into a false sense of security.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs serve as a Trojan Horse to infect military organizations with the tenets of critical theory, critical race theory (CRT), and all of its corollaries that are designed to install activist leaders and undermine the ability to fulfill mission requirements.
Transformative political movements are driven by persuasive personalities whose ideas are chronicled unambiguously. Marx’s Das Kapital, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, Mao’s Little Red Book, Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, and a host of books written by critical theorists foretold the intent and the means to achieve these objectives.
The action required for radical change, however violent or disruptive, is often described in euphemisms and other non-threatening terms and phrases, but the ultimate purpose is the complete control and conversion of the offending institutions.
My alma mater, the United States Air Force Academy, initiated a diversity and inclusion program in 2013 in accordance with Executive Order 13583. The program was advertised as an appeal to fairness, where access to opportunity would not be denied due to race, ethnicity, or sex.
But the apparent simplicity and reasonableness of the plan cloaked a more ulterior dimension. The document detailed a pervasive system that inculcated every aspect of academy life.
Its author, the academy superintendent, who now heads the Association of Graduates Foundation, made no mention of merit and averred that diversity and inclusion were no less important than academics.
The current superintendent’s embrace and flaunting of DEI indoctrination at the academy has been fraught with controversy.
From the promotion of the use of specific pronouns and the denial that critical race theory was being taught, to the public adulation of activist George Takei, the academy administration is at odds with the graduate community, cadets, and parents.
A poll taken at my class’s 50th reunion last October demonstrated that seven of every eight respondents disagreed with politicization of the academy, the prioritization of DEI, and the diminution of academic and military training.
The precipitous decline of financial contributions to the Academy Foundation echoes this sentiment.
Rather than lend transparency to those questioning DEI’s preeminence at the academy, the administration obfuscates, ignoring Freedom of Information Act requests and stonewalling efforts by graduates to voice contrary opinions in the Association of Graduates magazine, Checkpoints.
Subscribers are subjected to a litany of articles and opinion pieces which extol the virtues of DEI. Nowhere is there a forum to contest this orthodoxy or expose the philosophical underpinnings and goals of critical theory.
In an attempt to appease the graduate community, the superintendent participated in a three-part video interview, one of which dealt with DEI.
The nature of the questions asked made it apparent that the intent of the exercise was not to challenge the superintendent’s policy but to allow him to expostulate and to validate the program by the proof-by-authority technique.
The audience was informed that sinister connotations attributed to DEI are exaggerated, and it is more accurate to think of DEI as an effective communications tool in the military setting. Change was inevitable, and those questioning the DEI narrative clearly did not understand its utility.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion are words that are meant to engender empathy and inspire a call to a higher standard.
But in the hands of Marxists, these words are weapons, and they are being used to conceal the malevolent intent to destroy the institutions they are purportedly saving.
Scott Sturman, MD, is a former Air Force helicopter pilot and graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, where he majored in aeronautical engineering. He graduated from the University of Arizona School of Health Sciences Center and practiced medicine for 35 years until retirement.
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