President Joe Biden has liked to use West Point’s “Duty, Honor, Country” motto as a political cudgel. Now, under his administration, West Point is removing that motto from its mission statement.
The U.S. Military Academy at West Point is removing that phrase from its mission statement despite West Point Superintendent Steve Gilland saying that those “three hallowed words” are “foundational” to the academy. Interestingly, despite this, Gilland is also already referring to the motto in the past tense: “it defined who we are as an institution and as graduates of West Point.” (Emphasis added.)
Evidently, it isn’t meant to define the institution or its graduates any longer, or else it would remain in the mission statement. The politically and racially toxic ideology of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” has seeped from the federal government’s bloated bureaucracy into the military and military academies. How can West Point focus on duty, honor, and country when it is busy “Understanding Whiteness and White Rage” and discussing “White Power at West Point”? Where is the duty and honor in defending a supposedly racist country?
Maybe that isn’t it. Toxic DEI ideology has leaked into military academies, and Biden has treated the “Duty, Honor, Country” motto as a political catchphrase to attack former President Donald Trump, but maybe this change isn’t the product of DEI-induced hysteria. After all, Gilland said that West Point’s mission statement has changed nine times in the past century. That suggests a different problem: bureaucrats with too much free time spending it changing things that don’t need changing to justify their employment and salary.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The totality of the circumstances reflects poorly on West Point regardless. It is undeniable that more divisive DEI policies have been pushed into military academies, which Gilland has refused to publicly acknowledge. It is also undeniable that this ideological push has come at the same time that the military is missing its recruiting goals, with the Defense Department acknowledging it was short 41,000 recruits from its goal in fiscal 2023. With all this going on, why would removing “Duty, Honor, Country” from West Point’s mission even cross the mind of decision-makers right now?
Whether it’s the result of DEI decay or the churn of busybody bureaucrats, the change is going to further reduce trust among many that the military is focused on its goals of doing its duty with honor and protecting the country. West Point’s leadership has no one to blame but Biden’s DEI-focused administration and themselves.