The repeal of the policy of affirmative action against minorities, gradually imposed in the Pentagon since the 2000s, could be the Trump administration’s most significant contribution to American defence capability.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth signed an order prescribing that appointments to vacant positions should be made solely on the basis of professional qualities and merit, excluding gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. from consideration.
On the other hand, one should not expect miracles. The US has been on the path of discrimination for more than twenty years. There is a whole generation of officers who started, served, and retired during this policy.
There are some, mostly career-ending, officers who started in the 1990s, there are those who disagree with this approach but have kept quiet, but it is impossible to change everything at once in such a gigantic mechanism as the U.S. military. And here, of course, one wonders whether the Americans will try to force changes, or whether the changes will be gradual. In the first case, it is not far to managerial paralysis “strictly out of good intentions”.
And we’ll see – also to realise more fully that getting out of an unpleasant situation can create more problems than the situation itself.
Meister
