Diversity key to ‘warfighting effectiveness’ – US Air Force

The force’s new training materials are meant to convince cadets that diversity is literally their strength

“Diversity and inclusion” will be “critical” to fighting the wars of the future, the US Air Force is teaching its cadets, according to a slideshow seen by Fox News Digital on Wednesday. 

The presentation, titled “Diversity & Inclusion: What it is, why we care, & what we can do,” is supposed to create “champions of dignity and respect to foster an inclusive climate in the Cadet Wing,” according to the academy that proposed the program last year. The slides encourage cadets to replace gendered language with “person-centered” talk and embrace diversity as an “institutional priority.”

Cadets should avoid using the 'N' word, among other sensitive terms, including 'terrorist.' The program is declared a “safe space” early in the training, with cadets encouraged to share their secrets under the reasoning that “what’s said here, stays in the room.”

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Diversity and inclusion training is key to cadets’ “warfighting effectiveness,” an Air Force Academy spokesperson told Fox News when asked about the program, reasoning that the military couldn't know what kind of enemy or obstacles it might face going forward, so the “need to innovate” is “critical.”

Republicans have frequently criticized woke initiatives in the military. Veteran and Florida Rep. Mike Waltz suggested that rather than inclusion, the Air Force should worry about “the macro aggressions against America that are happening all over the world.”

The US has been at war for 227 of its 245 years in official existence, having entered just three of those conflicts in response to attacks by an opposing state on its soil.