DEI has become a boogeyman.
Many organizations are stepping back and focusing more on belongingness and acceptance of differences. I strongly favor this approach. We want every producing employee to feel a part of our culture and mission and do not tolerate 1% any demeaning or excluding of people due to race, religion, ethnicity or sexual orientation. If the play by our rules and perform, they are part of the family.
Training that emphasizes these things is part of what we do. The military should do it too IMO.
DEI is absolutely a boogeyman.
More or less the 'training' that we went through on it at my company was a day long and it more or less said "don't be an asshole", and "try to put yourself in your teammates' shoes". In the military you have to walk a fine line, but you do want to precaution against intra-squad conflicts and descension. It makes units operate at a higher level when you have cooperation and cohesion than when you have tension. The second option is how you end up with friendly fire / fragging incidents, arguments, brawls, court martials, etc...
Again.... if the person next to you can pull a trigger to save your life.... you don't want them second guessing if they actually prefer to save you because you've been a raging dick to them. You don't have to love each other, but you do have to be civil enough to work together to save your own lives and the lives of the rest of your outfit.
I find that most of the DEI discussion typically comes down to women in combat roles.... and many arguments will be made about women's ineffectiveness (can't run as far, as fast, lift as much weight, etc..) but, I think the Israelis have clearly proven that wrong. Not every woman can be an infantry grunt, but it certainly doesn't mean they can't see combat and be effective situationally.
