Bruce Fleming, a civilian English professor at Annapolis, has been pointing out how the Navy is corrupting itself in pursuit of Diversity:
Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead announced in Annapolis recently that "diversity is the number one priority" at the Naval Academy.
He has a new
post up (in hard to read typeface). I liked this
comment on Thomas Rick's blog on
Foreign Policy from Geschichtlich:
As a fellow USNA professor, I must concur entirely with Bruce's assessment. Don't underestimate the impetus of the Superintendent behind the current policy. The man is committed to gaining a fourth star, and cynically understands that the current course is likely appeal strongly to the current administration. And don't underestimate the significance of the policy as window-dressing. Somebody ought to ask our dear leader what proportion of his own community (nuclear power) are minorities, and then marvel when the notion of inviolable standards is invoked in defense of the shockingly low number.
All is revealing of a service that hasn't fought a real naval war in sixty years, hasn't had its doctrine, organization, personnel and promotion policies, or strategic posture really tested by a serious opponent in a long time. One cannot but recognize that such preposterous policies - at a military academy, no less - reflect an indolent service culture of peacetime politics.
You'll notice that affirmative action usually runs out at some point up the hierarchy, such as at the level of commanding ballistic nuclear missile boomers (thank God).
A subtle issue that hasn't been widely addressed is that employees of the Executive Branch, such as admirals, naturally assume that under President Obama pushing racial preferences is an even faster route to promotion than under previous Presidents. Unless Obama forthrightly states otherwise, affirmative action will inevitably get stronger under Obama even if he, himself, takes no positive steps.
