Two soldiers say that an Alaska unit took part in what was known as ‘Racial Thursdays,’ a weekly event in which troops were allowed – and in some cases encouraged – to make racial slurs.

The Army is investigating allegations that anAlaska unit took part in what it called “Racial Thursdays,” a weekly event in which troops were allowed – and in some cases encouraged – to make racial slurs.

It had become something of a “tradition,” a black soldier told the Army Times. He had contacted the media because he thought the practice was wrong.

“It’s degrading to soldiers,” said the staff sergeant, who requested anonymity. “We’ve had soldiers almost fight over the crap that’s going on here.”

Recommended: Race equality in America: How far have we come?

The US military has long been considered at the forefront of racial integration. In 1948, President Truman signed an executive order calling for “equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services.”

Despite “undeniable successes, however, the Armed Forces have not yet succeeded in developing a continuing stream of leaders who are as diverse as the nation they serve.” This was the conclusion of the Military Leadership Diversity Commission, which was created by Congress to look into the topic and issued its final report in 2011.

“Racial/ethnic minorities and women still lag behind non-Hispanic white men in terms of representative percentage of military leadership positions held,” the commission noted.

It added that in the years to come, “Marked changes in the demographic makeup of the United States will throw existing disparities into sharp relief.”

In fact, the latest Pentagon numbers indicate that minority participation in the armed services is on the decline.

Today, about 1 in 5 Army soldiers is African-American, according to figures provided by the US Army, compared with nearly 27 percent in 1995.

In the Marine Corps, the proportion of African-American enlisted troops was 20 percent in 1985. Today, 30 years later, it stands at 11 percent. Of the 20,837 officers in the Marine Corps, 1,117 are African-American, according to Marine Corps figures provided to the Monitor. Of 81 general officers, five are black.

Across the military, the force is 16.6 percent black, greater than the 13.6 percent of the total US population who are African-American. But 10 years ago, in 2005, black troops made up 17.8 percent of the armed forces, according to a US military demographic report.

The number of African-American troops tends to be higher in support jobs such as cooks and mechanics, and lower in the combat positions, the profession that has traditionally offered the most reliable pathway to advancement in the military.

“Diversity is a source of strength for the Department of Defense, and is a key component to maintaining our highest state of readiness,” Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Christensen, a Defense Department spokesperson, said in a statement provided to the Monitor. “Our force comes from a diverse [populace], and certainly our military is better served when it reflects the nation it serves.”

To ensure diversity, it is “imperative that the Department focus its efforts on emerging talent to ensure that we successfully attract, recruit, develop and retain a highly-skilled” force, Lieutenant Commander Christensen added.

Fort Wainwright, Alaska, is the home of the battalion allegedly taking part in “Racial Thursdays” – the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Battalion. It says it’s investigating the matter.

This is the same unit to which Pvt. Danny Chen belonged before he committed suicide in 2011 while deployed to the war in Afghanistan. He had told his family that he had been racially harassed and hazed.

A junior soldier in the 3rd Battalion backed up the story of “Racial Thursdays.” “The way it was put to me was it was a tradition among the guys,” the soldier, who also asked to remain anonymous, told the Army Times.

“Every Thursday, they wouldn’t make you, you didn’t have to participate, but they’d remind you.”

He said he didn’t speak up, but he saw that the practice nearly sparked fights. “For the soldiers who are minorities, we don’t want to be looked down upon or looked at as outcasts or traitors,” he said. “So we didn’t open our mouths.”

“It’s a shame that it’s coming to this, but I’m not even making this up. I’m not making any of this up,” the staff sergeant told the Army Times. “Somebody needs to be relieved.”

Army investigating alleged ‘Racial Thursdays'

A unit in Alaska is accused of holding a weekly event where troops are allowed to make slurs. It’s degrading to soldiers'

Get Ready for Embryos From Two Men or Two Women

• Dr. Guy Ringler

KENNER, La. (AP) — A man sprayed wasp killer and swung a machete at TSA agents and passengers at the New Orleans international airport before an officer shot the man several times as people frantically scrambled away, authorities and passengers say.

Richard White, 62, approached the airport security checkpoint Friday evening, pulled out a can of the insecticide and began spraying both agents and several passengers standing in line before he then drew a large machete from the waistband of his pants, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said.

Jonas Dominique @JonasPDominique Follow A man tries to rush security at MSY w/ a machete, TSA shoots him @WWLTV @wdsu @cnnbrk @msnbc 8:25 PM - 20 Mar 2015 Louisiana, USA, United States 68 RETWEETS 8 FAVORITES

After running through the detector, White was chasing a female TSA agent when Lt. Heather Slyve of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office drew her weapon. White continued to swing the machete as she approached, and she fired three rounds, striking him in the face, chest and leg, according to Normand.

A TSA agent also was struck in the arm by a bullet while running from White, authorities said, adding the agent's wound wasn't life-threatening.

White, who was wounded, was taken into surgery at a hospital overnight, Normand said. There was no immediate update early Saturday on White's condition.

Bystanders described minutes of panic and chaos at the airport in the New Orleans suburb of Kenner.

"Everyone was ducking for cover. It's New Orleans. I knew they (the gunshots) were coming from the security checkpoint area," said Garret Laborde, 31, a traveler trying to fly to Houston. "I immediately ducked down ... Then we waited."

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Twitter user Farah Stockman posted this image from New Orleans airport where two people were stabbed …

He called the scene "instant chaos" with "screaming, lots of females screaming for a short period of time." Some bystanders ran to get out of the way and received minor cuts and bruises, the sheriff said.

Laborde said he remained down for several minutes. He said police then began rushing around the airport, telling everyone to duck and get back down, and that sirens went off and announcements could be heard for people to evacuate. He said the tension eased later and he was outside the airport when he saw a man being taken out on a stretcher.

Normand said investigators were trying to determine what White was doing at the airport. He said it did not appear that he was trying to get on a plane.

"At this point, we have only been able to determine that Richard White had a few minor arrests," said a sheriff's statement emailed early Saturday by agency spokesman Col. John N. Fortunato. He said authorities later found White's car outside the terminal and searched it.

Logan Tucker, 26, of Meridian, Mississippi, and Phillip Green, 33, of Houston, both headed to Houston for work as deckhands on a tugboat, said they were about 25 yards from where events unfolded.

"I heard the gunshots," Tucker said.

"It was pandemonium after that," Green said. "I took cover. I didn't want to become part of the story."

Green said they saw the machete and the suspect on the ground as they were leaving. The knife was about 14 inches long, he said.

He said he saw a TSA agent with an injury to her arm. "It was not something you expect in an airport, and I've traveled a lot," Tucker said.

But not all in the airport complex were aware of events.

Brett Leonard, whose flight from San Francisco landed in New Orleans shortly before the attack, said passengers in the baggage claim area had no indication of what happened until they walked outside after picking up their bags. He said dozens of police cars were parked outside the terminal with lights flashing, and a nearby police officer told him that someone had attacked a TSA officer moments before.

Leonard said he was put into a cab with several strangers as police tried to evacuate the area.

"It was just very confusing; we didn't know what was going on," Leonard said.

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Stephanie Siek in New York contributed to this report.

Tehran (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday ruled out any cooperation with the United States in the troubled Middle East, saying talks with Washington are confined to nuclear issues.

In a closely watched speech marking the Persian new year festival of Nowruz, Khamenei took steps to quell speculation that any nuclear deal with the West could lead to a wider rapprochement.

"No way," he told a raucous crowd in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, on the chances of an agreement on Iran's atomic programme having other policy implications.

"Negotiations with the United States are on the nuclear issue and nothing else," he said.

"US objectives on regional matters are the opposite to our objectives," Khamenei said, accusing Washington of creating instability in Syria, Libya and Egypt.

His remarks were greeted by chants of "Death to America" from the tightly packed thousands who gathered to hear him speak.

Khamenei's comments appeared to be a blunt rejection of overtures made by US President Barack Obama that a nuclear deal could lead to cooperation in the Middle East, chiefly against Islamic State jihadists in Iraq and Syria.

Iran is currently in talks with the United States and other major world powers over ending the 12-year standoff over its disputed nuclear programme.

With time running out on a March 31 deadline for a political deal, the two sides said they remained at odds as negotiations broke up in Lausanne, Switzerland on Friday.

The talks are set to resume on Wednesday.

Khamenei, who spoke for more than an hour, reiterated that Iran wants sanctions lifted under a nuclear deal, backed his negotiating team and called on all Iranians to support the government's aims.

"The lifting of sanctions is part of the negotiations and not the outcome," he said, insisting there could be no delay between the implementation of a deal and the removal of sanctions.

"Sanctions are the only tool that the enemy has against our nation," he added, calling on the country to intensify its domestic economy, stating that relying on foreign help was not a risk worth taking.

Khamenei also dismissed as "insincere" a near five-minute video address for Nowruz that Obama made to the leaders and people of Iran, in which he urged them to choose opportunity over isolation.

He denied a suggestion from Obama that there were people in Iran who did not want a diplomatic solution to the nuclear issue.

"What the Iranian nation does not want is to accept what the Americans want to impose by force," he added. "Officials, our negotiators and the people will not accept it at all."

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israeli liberals woke up after national elections with a demoralizing feeling: Most of the country, in a deep and possibly irreversible way, does not think like they do.

There had been a sense of urgency among moderate Israelis, and even an ounce of hope, that widespread frustration with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's six straight years in office would lead voters to pull Israel away from what they perceive as its rightward march toward international isolation, economic inequality and a dead end for peace with the Palestinians.

But as the results trickled in on Wednesday, they showed Likud with a shocking lead that has all but guaranteed Netanyahu a third consecutive term. Netanyahu called it a victory "against all odds." The liberals' optimism has been replaced with despair — and an infuriating belief that the masses may never understand that logic shows the current path is suicidal.

"Drink cyanide, bloody Neanderthals. You won," award-winning Israeli author and actress Alona Kimhi wrote on her Facebook page, before erasing it as her comments became the talk of the town. "Only death will save you from yourselves."

Such rage rippled through liberal Israel this week. Social media was full of embittered Israelis accusing Netanyahu's supporters of racism, and some vowed to stop donating charity to the underprivileged whom they perceived as being automatic supporters of the right.

The prime minister's main rival denounced such attacks. "Attempts to divide, vilify and spread hate in Israeli society disgust me, and it doesn't matter whether it comes from the right or the left," wrote Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog on Facebook.

The anger was about far more than the election, reflecting a larger and more dramatic battle for the heart of the country.

Israel's founding fathers were Jews of Ashkenazi, or eastern European, descent and the ideological predecessors of the Labor party, the main faction in the rebranded Zionist Union. The left led the country for its first three decades until Likud — heavily backed by working class Jews of Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, descent — gained power in 1977.

The Labor Party returned to power in the 1990s, leading the first efforts at peace with the Palestinians. But the Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s saw the return of hawkish rule, which in one form or another has lasted until today.

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In this Wednesday, March 17, 2015 photo, Zionist Union party supporters react to exit polls at the p …

The divisions between right and left largely revolve around the question of what do with territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — and the millions of Palestinians who live there.

Parties on the left would trade the land for peace and allow the creation of a Palestinian state. They also argue that the lands are a liability, since incorporating the Palestinians as citizens would destroy Israel as a Jewish-majority state.

The right emphasizes the lands' strategic value and biblical symbolism and pushes constantly for settling them with Jews. Its success in this endeavor has, paradoxically, put the country on a path toward being a place where Jews may no longer be a strong majority.

With more than 550,000 Israeli settlers now living in territories claimed by the Palestinians, Israeli liberals — along with the Palestinians — believe time is running out for the "two-state solution." So compelling is this "demographic argument" that Netanyahu himself has adopted its language, claiming at various times since 2009 that he, too, wants to end the occupation; but his party opposes this and Netanyahu continues to support the settlements, leading opponents to believe he is bamboozling them and adding to the sense of urgency.

Activists at the headquarters of V-15, an initiative that called to unseat Netanyahu, silently bundled dozens of banners on Thursday, and one activist asked a journalist to leave. A whole floor of the Zionist Union's campaign headquarters was empty, and party leaders gazed up from crumpled posters next to a vacuum cleaner.

"It's a big disappointment. There was a lot of energy for change here," said Zev Laderman, an investor in start-up companies, sitting in a boulevard cafe. "I woke up this morning to realize that I'm a minority in this country."

The center-left's Zionist Union won 24 seats — somewhat higher than the combined previous total of the two parties that form it — but Likud won 30. Another 37 seats were captured by parties believed to be willing to support Likud for a solid majority in the 120-member parliament. And the left-wing Meretz party will now be the smallest party in the upcoming government.

The looming coalition likely will feature right-wing pro-settler and ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious parties. In fundamental ways, they represent the opposite of the defiantly secular Israeli liberals who are fed up with taxpayer money being pumped to West Bank Jewish settlements and ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities.

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In this Tuesday, March 17, 2015 photo, a Zionist Union party supporter stands as exit polls are anno …

The prime minister's sudden turnaround toward victory took place after an 11th-hour effort to appeal to nationalist Israelis by pledging not to support an independent Palestinian state, and by warning voters of Arab citizens being bused to the polls in "droves" by left-wing organizations — comments that drew rebukes from Israeli Arabs and the White House.

Netanyahu since has tried to contain the damage from his statements — saying he remains committed to Palestinian statehood if conditions throughout the region improve — and insisting he is not a racist. But it seems unlikely that peace negotiations with the Palestinians will be high on his agenda. And the Jewish settlement of the West Bank, which enrages liberal Israelis and cements the country's entanglement there, likely will march on.

Liberal voters perceived this week's defeat less as the result of a poorly fought campaign than as a reflection of demographic trends and genuine public opinion in the country of 8 million.

After years of failed peace efforts, including two Israeli offers for statehood that were rejected or ignored by the Palestinians, few think a deal is likely. Even the Zionist Union seemed to hide from the issue during the campaign, focusing instead on bread-and-butter issues like the country's high cost of living.

"It doesn't matter what kind of campaign (the left) ran," political blogger Tal Schneider said. "There is a reality in the field. You can't change it. It's a nationalist public that is afraid of the Arabs."

Sitting at a bustling cafe in a hipster neighborhood of Tel Aviv, a 26-year-old campaign activist for the Zionist Union broke down in tears about the party's defeat.

"It's devastating," activist Lior Shalish said. She said the election results shouldn't be a surprise, just months after left-wing Israelis were attacked on the streets of Tel Aviv by nationalists during Israel's war against Hamas militants.

"You don't get a left-wing government after that. Like, that doesn't change so quickly," Shalish said. "We were stupid to believe that it does."

Some liberal Israelis said there were rays of light: A joint list unifying various Arab parties emerged as the country's third-largest party, re-energizing a disaffected Israeli Arab minority, and the V-15 initiative claims it increased turnout by centrist and left-wing voters.

In the lead up to the election, the left's momentum reached its peak at a major rally this month, when tens of thousands of Israelis packed a Tel Aviv square demanding a change of government.

The rally was seen as a victory. Many focused on the keynote speech by Meir Dagan, a former head of the Mossad intelligence agency, who issued an emotional appeal for change.

But in retrospect, it seems a tipping point in favor of Netanyahu occurred when artist Yair Garbuz took to the podium and railed against the "amulet kissers" who support Netanyahu.

His comments were perceived as a condescending swipe at the country's conservative working class of religious Jews of Sephardi, or Middle Eastern, lineage who have longstanding gripes with the country's European-descended Ashkenazi elite and lean heavily toward Likud.

The day after elections, columnist Ben Caspit wrote an article in the Maariv daily newspaper titled "Two States." He was not referring to the left's two-state solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but to Israel's own cultural divide.

"Israel is split — between left and right, between Bibi and anti-Bibi, between aspirations for normalcy and aspirations for territory," Caspit wrote, using Netanyahu's nickname. "Two states, two styles, two world views, split once again."

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Follow Daniel Estrin at www.twitter.com/danielestrin.