Across the Channel, Sky News has just revealed a series of emails exchanged between Royal Air Force recruiters between 2020 and early 2021. They are about “boarding profiles”. The director of human resources for the British air force openly pours out his policy of discriminating against “unnecessary white male pilots” and adds that he would be “happy to suspend the selection committees in order to achieve a parity between minorities, women and men”. The British Ministry of Defense has also confirmed that 31 white male pilots, unfairly sidelined, had been compensated to cover up a possible scandal. One of these messages even concludes, without possible ambiguity: “A strong signal [demand signal, ou signe d’demand, NDLR] must be sent back to recruitment so that it now focuses on the acceptance of all non-Whites and of all the women he has. Finally, still during the same period, and probably in order to improve the statistics, candidates from minorities and women were recruited without prior sports tests, unlike white men.
To protest against this charade, the group captain Elizabeth Nicoll, who had succeeded this army HRD particularly in the wind, had chosen, as for her, to resign. Following the revelation of this scandal, the reactions of British Air Force spokespersons oscillated between denial (“We have not lowered our standards”) and political discourse (“We will continue to build an army that attracts all talents”). In any case, for lack of candidates, the RAF still prefers to discriminate a little less… since, without personnel, no planes…
There was a time when the army, professional or not, was a crucible that abolished differences. It was an Englishman, Kipling, who said that the best army in the world would be one where gentlemen would command thugs. This was the case, on all sides, of the armies of Louis XIV, of Ungern-Sternberg against the Bolsheviks, and even of the British Crown itself, particularly in India. In an army designed as a tool of combat, in an army turned towards its final objective (war), it doesn’t matter who you are, as long as you are good. Murat and Lannes, Marshals of the Empire from very simple backgrounds, only owe their flamboyant trajectory to their talent. Bigeard, a child of popular Lorraine, left the army in 1940, “master corporal and anti-militarist”, in his own words. He did, however, end it as fire captain, Jedburgh operator, and patriot to the core.
The examples of Murat or Bigeard call for another question, because these men were revealed by circumstances. Would the British Air Force, like many Western armies, become not a peacetime army (that would be caricatural) but a political army? It’s still curious. In France, the reserve duty of the military, so heavy since 1961, aims to ensure the loyalty of the military to France, beyond any political consideration. In England, the throne prevails. In both cases, the nobility of the profession of arms is to stay away from the fashions of the day and societal fads. The expression “political soldier” refers to the dual command of Soviet regiments (political commissar + corps commander) or to the education of Waffen-SS officers in Junkerschule which was, precisely, intended to become servants of the regime, not servants of the country.
In France, there do not seem to be any quotas. A few sources, however, speak of the decision taken a few years ago to artificially “boost” the careers of female officers. Is it true or not? Time will sort it out. However, even if British society, despite its decorum and its reputation, is on a path of decomposition far more advanced than ours, for it has associated itself closely with the putrefaction of the American corpse, this lamentable example should inspire us. These days, the fashion is for “fairness” instead of “equality”. Equality is when everyone has the same chances, so they start from the same place. This is the famous “social staircase” of the French armies. Equity is when everyone arrives at the same place (and therefore starts in a staggered manner, with handicaps imposed on some or bonuses granted to others). It is a form of racism or reverse sexism, as do the major American universities which grant bonus points to blacks and penalty points to Asians and whites.
This article is originally published on bvoltaire.fr