Screw diversity, give me commitment and competence

Anyone who wonders how an incident like Ft. Hood could happen need look no further than the recent words of Army Chief of Staff Gen George Casey. While making the rounds of the Sunday talk shows, Casey let go with this bit of lunacy:

“Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.”

My next question to the Gen would have been, “How many left handed blind epileptic dwarfs are currently serving in the Army?” Followed by, “In the name of diversity, can we expect that you’ll be focusing your recruiting efforts on enlisting Americans who fall into this vital demographic?”

Our nation’s motto is one of diversity. From many, we are one. It seems to me that too many people are forgetting the “one” part of that motto. Diversity at the chow hall is great. Diversity in an officer’s commitment to his oath or a soldier’s diversity in his commitment to the mission is BS. In these matters there can be no diversity only sameness.

The military is a very DISCRIMINATING organization. We shouldn’t let DIVERSITY trump mission accomplishment. We shouldn’t put people at risk just for the sake of having people think that any Tom, Dick, Harry or Jane can do the job. They CAN’T.

I do not know when discrimination got such a bad name. Discrimination allows one to distinguish the light at the end of the tunnel from the on coming train. No question, the higher the endeavor, the more discrimination is taking place. Ask any professional athlete.

So screw diversity. Set high standards and push people to meet and exceed those standards and if only left handed blind epileptic dwarfs meet the standard then so be it. Do not keep lowering the standards so that we get the right number of weak stupid people running the Army so it’ll “look like America.”

But lauding diversity isn’t even the dumbest part of Gen Casey’s comment. How about, “as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that’s worse.” Huh? 13 dead and couple of dozen wounded, but losing diversity is worse? What does that mean? Does it mean we should tolerate soldiers being gunned down on their posts 2 or 3 times a year as long the gunmen and their victims “look like America.” How many soldiers need to be killed before commitment and competence outweighs diversity?

I for one am happy to see spineless PC military BS go the way of the three prong pitch fork before we have anything else that even comes close to resembling Ft. Hood happen again.