(RepublicanJournal.org) – The US Army has released a new recruitment ad, and it’s raised some eyebrows. For years Pentagon officials have worked hard to highlight the diversity of our military. This video was different; all the soldiers who featured prominently were white men. That’s sparked some wild claims on the internet.
On November 6, the US Army posted a new video on its X (formerly Twitter) account. It features a group of paratroopers from the 82nd Airborne Division jumping from a CH-47 helicopter, with the inspirational slogan, “Your greatest victories are never achieved alone.” It’s a short video that gives a positive message about the opportunities available in one of the Army’s most famous divisions.
However, soon after the video appeared, an X account called “End Wokeness” commented, “Oh s***. A new U.S. Army recruitment ad dropped and it’s all straight white men. We are definitely going to war.” This isn’t actually true. Although all the troops the camera zooms in on — and in fact all the ones that can be clearly seen in the scenes shot inside the helicopter — are indeed white men (obviously we can’t tell whether they’re straight or not), the video ends with a shot of soldiers walking off the drop zone. Near the center of this shot (but partly hidden by the overlaid “Be all you can be” Army motto, is a black female soldier. However, it’s fair to say the video paints a whiter, more male picture of the US Army than we’ve been used to recently.
Conservative accounts on X are calling the ad cynical. They’re saying that after years of focusing on non-white and non-straight soldiers the Army, now that it’s facing a catastrophic recruiting crisis, is turning back to its traditional recruiting pool in a panic. Others are suggesting that the sudden rehabilitation of white men in uniform means another war is imminent. While that’s probably a deduction too far, it is possible the Pentagon has finally realized that wokeness doesn’t win wars.
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