We can be proud that the military, and especially the Army, has come a long way in integrating minorities and women into the force. However, we still have a long way to go. The total Army means the integration of men and women from a wide range of ethnic, racial, educational, cultural, and religious backgrounds. We have formed military coalitions with nations with soldiers from backgrounds vastly different from ours. The dialogue on leading and managing diverse organizations will continue.
Dialogue is the most important issue here.
We may not agree on what diversity means. However, we must agree that we all come from diverse backgrounds with diverse ideas. Colonel Sayles provides us the opportunity to discuss, in a civilized forum, ideas and issues that are extremely important to the military and to American society. It is simply the right thing to do. Colonel Sayles logically and calmly asks questions about diversity and its effect on the future of organizations, individual soldiers, and leaders.