DEI spurred US recruitment crisis, perilous anti-ICE incitement and other commentary

Military beat: DEI Spurred US Recruitment CrisisThe “racist ideology of diversity, equity and inclusion” spurred a US military “recruitment crisis” by driving away thousands of white men, conclude Mike Gallagher & Kevin Wallsten at The Wall Street Journal.Brass under President Joe Biden worked “to make our military less white”; the result: “Between 2013 and 2023, annual male enlistments in the Army fell 35%”; from 2018 to ’23, “white Army recruits dropped from 44,042 to 25,070.

No other groups saw such steep declines.” Happily, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “reset,” scrapping DEI, “is working, with the Pentagon announcing its ‘best recruiting numbers in 15 years.’ ” Yes, our “successful” Iran operation and various reforms also helped drive the turnaround, “but it’s clear that stressing identity over mission drives young people away.”Conservative: Perilous Anti-ICE IncitementThe Washington Examiner’s Byron York warns “of a new wave of tough-guy progressivism in which state and local Democratic officials around the country apparently hope to intimidate” agents from enforcing “federal immigration law.” This expletive-filled “tough-guy anti-ICE talk” is “rampant on social media,” and Dem authority figures’ “belligerence” has “trickled down to street protesters,” risking “serious consequences.” Beware: “The anti-ICE crusade seems to have spawned a corps of amateur warriors who believe they can stick it to law enforcement officers without consequence.” Democrats and their “resistance warriors have arrayed themselves for battle against federal law enforcement,” so “the Minneapolis incident will likely not be the last to end badly.”Media watch: A Dangerous ‘Drive!’ MistakeThe “near-universally repeated narrative that” Becca Good “shouted, ‘Drive, baby, drive!’ in the split second before” an ICE agent shot her wife Renee in Minneapolis is just wrong, fumes Real...