This week, the team talks about a new push against immigrants, this time in our own ranks from the Pentagon. Army Recruiters have canceled the enlistment contracts for hundreds of foreign-born military recruits, killing off their potential to become citizens and threatening many with deportation.
For a military entering it's sixteenth year in Afghanistan, and who have soldiers in a majority of the countries across the globe, one would think the Army would be happy to accept these foreign nationals. Reasoning seems to be fairly shaky according to the article linked from Alex Horton. Some suggest the resource intensive nature of getting an immigrant to their ship date makes it attractive to cut them loose.
No matter the reason, these people have been denied a fast track to citizenship. These potential recruits are crucial as many come fluent in needed languages, such as Russian and Chinese. If it's true recruiters are finding it difficult to navigate shifting policies regarding immigrant status, we are showing once more just how broken the pathway to becoming an American is.
Next, Chelsea Manning is back in the news after being invited, and then declined, a visiting fellow position at Harvard.
We aren't going to re-litigate the crimes of Manning. Whether you agree with what she did or not is immaterial. What is important is Harvard shows just how fragile the Ivy league schools are, and how their decisions are based not on what might be educational, but where power lies.
When Manning was invited, former deputy director Michael Morell promptly resigned his position as senior fellow. Soon after, Mike Pompeo, the CIA director, backed out of a speaking engagement at the last minute. This caused Harvard to immediately call the invitation to Manning a mistake.
From the statement from Dean Elmendorf:
Sean Spicer, who was the spokesperson for President Trump for the first six months of his presidency and who often sparred with the press about the inauguration attendance numbers (because he was lying about them at the behest of the president) has not had his visiting fellow status revoked. Nor has Harvard apologized for celebrating Henry Kissinger, who orchestrated secret bombings during the Vietnam War.
Harvard also rejected the acceptance of Michelle Jones, a convicted felon who was a Ph. D. student at NYU. Jones murdered her four year old and spend twenty years in prison. Now out, her debt to society supposidly paid, she finds doors being slammed in her face. Why? Because it would make them look bad.
The people in power stay in power for a reason. Because they keep the rest of us powerless.