The Arlington National Cemetery removed the historical sections of African -African -origin veterans, of Spanish and female from its website.
Rob Schmits, host:
President Trump ordered the US military to strike against Houthi targets in Yemen. Trump says that the Houthis are funded by Iran and regularly fired missiles at American forces and allies. Tom Bowman from NPR here. Tom, what do we know about these clear strikes?
Tom Bowman, byline: Well, Rob, told me by two American officials who are not authorized to speak that this is a continuous and more sustainable process than we saw in the past, sea and air attacks against the Houthi and radar sites. I was told that these strikes will continue in the days, if not weeks.
Schmitz: As you know, I will mutate here, TOM, because you are also reporting information about the decorated black soldiers, among others, cleaned from the Arlington National Cementry site, apparently to comply with the Trump administration. What is missing here?
Bowman: Well, they have dropped the internal links that you can go to and use to go to the web pages that included dozens of prominent graves from the old black, Latin warriors, females and their husbands. Now, these pages included a short biography of people like General Colin Powell, First President-Black President of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Hector Santa Anna, a pilot in World War II who later participated in Berlin Air Force, as well as a black postal unit all of World War II. Historian Kevin Levin noticed these changes for the first time on his intuition. It is called the memory of the civil war, and all this was confirmed to NPR by an army official.
Schmits: Was history and stories removed behind these old warriors as well?
Bowman: Well, no, it was not removed but more difficult to find it, and again, it has not been prominently noticed on the website. You can still find it through other links such as the US Supreme Court or prominent military officials, so it is not clear. Now, Pentagon officials have been directed by the President and Defense Minister Beit Higseth to get rid of all the Pentagon content that relates to diversity, fairness and inclusion programs.
Schmits: This is how we understand this, this, like, easy access to the history of the old warriors who fought in the US wars of various backgrounds, and this is part of this.
Bowman: This is true. Only one part of all of this, at the Pentagon Hall meeting last month, criticized the preceding celebrations of diversity, saying that the term, diversity is our strength, is, “the most phrase in military history.” He developed a note saying that the most famous identity has died in the Ministry of Defense. He said that the Pentagon no longer hosts the celebrations or events related to the month of black history, the month of the history of women, or the month of national heritage of Spanish origin or the month of national awareness of employment. He went to …
Schmits: Wow.
Bowman: … Say, Rob, that such events placed one group on another and eroded intimate friendship. He said that unity and purpose are important in the task of fighting the war.
Schmits: So Tom, what did Minister Higseth do here?
Bowman: Well, Higseth also issued the Pentagon’s instructions to remove any news and feature articles, photos and videos, which enhance Dei, and the time frame of those that lasted for the four years of Biden administration. Now, all this led to some confusion. I spoke with an employee of the Pentagon who participated in spreading social media, and he and his colleagues, as you know, can we mention Martin Luther King’s day, because it is a federal holiday?
Schmitz: Right.
Bowman: He suggested, all of this could have an effect on employment, which is struggling with services, of course. As you know, at the present time, the percentage of black army recruits in the army is higher than their number in the civil workforce. So what message do you send if you get rid of these celebrations or not highlight the prominent people buried in Arlington like Colin Powell?
Schmits: This effort by the Pentagon has expanded throughout the army, right?
Bowman: Now, this is true. As you know, West Point has banned clubs, such as the US -Korean Relations Symposium. The Maritime Academy has cut or restructured two sessions of political science that focused on sex. Therefore – the professors told me that there is tense, and their writing is about anything that may mention diversity, which can make them in trouble.
Schmitz: This is Tom Bowman from NPR.
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