Next Army secretary must ensure military reflects America’s diversity

The proposed, and withdrawn, nomination of Mark Green for Secretary of the Army put into sharp relief an essential question for the American military and American society to wrestle with: how important is it for our military to reflect the society we serve?

Although Mr. Green has withdrawn his nomination, the question remains for the next nominee and other military leaders. What are the consequences of furthering a divide, geographically and demographically, between our armed forces and the rest of the nation?

As the Pentagon’s former assistant secretary for personnel issues, these are the issues I dealt with on a daily basis. I had the pleasure of working with some of the greatest uniformed men and women in the world. Yet I discovered that despite the best intentions and even the focus of the secretary of Defense, our military remains in a precarious position of not mirroring the society it serves.

{mosads}Our all-volunteer force has served us well since the 1970’s, but requires constant vigilance to ensure that it reflects our society — a vigilance that is more difficult in certain periods, like strong economic times. In a conscript military, we do not need to worry about the reflective nature of society on its military. When everyone is subject to a fair draft, then all segments of society are represented in the military. I say fair draft, because this reflectiveness is only true if there are not the mechanisms present to allow certain socio-economic groups to avoid service.

However, in the case of the all-volunteer force, the military must work very hard to attract young people across a broad spectrum of society, otherwise risk creating a military that does not reflect the nation it is designed to serve.

Trump’s Army secretary nominee Mark Green withdraws after fierce opposition over comments about LGBT individuals https://t.co/cLRp4FOIDQ pic.twitter.com/xcjBKaCyHE

— The Hill (@thehill) May 5, 2017

Ensuring a strong connection between the military and society is essential in our democracy. All Americans should feel like they have a stake in matters affecting the military. Yet as citizens become less connected, they tend to voice their concerns less often and less loudly — increasing the potential use of our military in places and scenarios that most Americans oppose, among other undesirable outcomes. I believe that the best way to ensure a strong connection between the military and society is to ensure that the force reflects America.

That is why I also believe that neither the Army, nor any Service, nor American society can afford the type of exclusionary rhetoric and views that were expressed by Mr. Green towards Muslims, LGBT Americans, Latinos and others.

I am sure that there are those that will accuse me of trying to make the military into a social experiment. However, I would respond by asking, is a military that is reflective of society a social experiment? Or is making a military purposefully less reflective than America the actual social experiment?

We made important progress in recent years to make the military more reflective of American society — and American society more connected to the military, in the process. In each issue that I had the honor of working on — from opening combat positions to women to fighting for and seeing the removal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell to the implementation of the Pentagon’s transgender policies — the standard we used was the same. In each case, we said, if you want to serve and you can meet the standards, we welcome you into your military.

To me, this is the only standard that will drive us to achieve what I believe we must, which is a military more reflective of the society we serve. For those that believe we should return to a military of decades ago, I say, stop conducting your social experiments on America’s armed forces. And for President Trump’s next Army Secretary nominee, I have one key question: Do you support allowing any willing and able citizen the opportunity to serve their country?

Todd A. Weiler is a former Assistant Secretary of Defense under the Obama Administration and Deputy Assistant Secretary under President Clinton. Weiler is a decorated combat veteran and currently consults on military and civilian personnel issues.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.