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Friday, October 22, 2021

Commentary: The Steady Decline of Our Once-Beloved Military

The highest echelon of the U.S. military is becoming dysfunctional. 

There are too many admirals and generals for the size of the current U.S. military. It now boasts three times the number of four-star admirals and generals than we had during World War II—when the country was in an existential war for survival and when, by 1945, our active military personnel was almost nine times larger than the current armed forces.

18 comments:

  1. The O-6 and above were lieutenants and captains at best back when I retired. They were hardheaded and championed their special causes. I knew the end was near.

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  2. This reckless behavior by top military brass goes all the way back to MacArthur.

    When MacArthur refused to come to Washington to meet with Truman for a briefing for the ostensible excuse that he was too busy, Truman should have fired him publicly for refusing an order. Similarly, when Trump found out that his order to draw down troop strength in Syria was being ignored, by Gen. Milley, Trump should have ordered him to present himself forthwith in the Oval office, ordered him to stand at attention, then, in front of witnesses, including the Director of the Secret Service, reamed him a new asshole, fired him, stripped him of his rank badges and literally kicked his ass out the door onto Penn. Ave.

    Then he should have summoned every commanding general into the oval, repeated the order to draw down troop strength in Syria and fired each one turn, until one of them came to attention, saluted and exclaimed Yes Sir! Right away sir!

    A long time ago a famous Chinese general said something to the effect that when you are appointed the Commander, be the Commander.

    Back then, when orders were ignored or not carried out expeditiously, it usually meant either falling on your sword or the loss of your head by the person who issued the order. Maybe that can be re-instituted sometime in the near future.

    Nemo

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  3. Way back when I heard a Boot could hold up a stress card and the DI had to lay off I knew the end was coming. Had I held up a stress card my DI would a shoved it up my ass. Boot Camp is tough and stressful so's they can weed out the pansies. I had a zippo that said, "Ya think sex is wild, Ya oughta try a fire fight." If ya can't handle Boot ya sure as shit can't handle combat.

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  4. It's OK; they're woke

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  5. Lota yard arms need traitors

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    Replies
    1. The problem is that there is no one to take the traitors to them. The traitors aren't going to take themselves, and the populace isn't going to take them either, so....

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    2. FCI: There are no identified targets nor anyone to identify targets. Eliminating individual generals, admirals, politicians and etc., is murder. Determining whom to eliminate is a crime, with distribution of a list. Any self-identified group of enforcers of common law who takes the identified into custody is guilty of kidnapping. Until we elect to office people who will impeach those who are a threat to our constitutional governments, we are but on a screen door, paddling upstream on a river of shit.

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  6. VDH nails it. And our military can't protect us from THEM!

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  7. Not only are there more 4 Star Generals and Admirals, but the quality of the high ranking officers in our military has steadily gone down hill since the end of WWII. Starting with Korea, Vietnam, and on, you can see some of the decisions made, and the results that have come from the way that different battles were prosecuted, showing that a lack of strong leadership often hurt the efforts of the men and women in uniform.
    Of course, the CIC is where it starts from, and nowhere did that play out worse than in Vietnam. But in Afghanistan, where there was no actual end goal or strategy to achieve it, the same thing could be said. Even Colin Powell, a man that I was not all that fond of, may he RIP, said that if you break it you buy it, referring I think to either Afghanistan or Iraq, but the meaning is the same, when you invade a nation with no real goal.
    Of course, the Democrats are happy to see the military made weak, it has been their plan from long ago. A weak military can't defend our borders, which they wish to erase.

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  8. in the book "the stainless steel rat" they give a supercomputer the task of making the space navy more efficient. several months later the computer declares it has found the answer to the problem, but it requires every officer from O-5 and above to report to this space station/conference center to reveal it's findings.

    once the officers were assembled on the station, the computer hacked into one of the nearby battleships, and blew the whole thing up.

    efficiency improved 200%.

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  9. Aww... look. The article's author wants you to believe that a system that has been gamed. Can be fixed by systeming harder.

    Isn't that cute?

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    Replies
    1. Hanson's intellectual output in recent years has become entirely predictable. How? He is one of those guys who is careful not to color outside the lines too often, lest it offend his paymasters in GOP Inc. - i.e., at the Hoover Institution, FNC, Hillsdale College, or the outfit which syndicates his newspaper column. How can anyone - especially a scholar of his evident credentials - claim to be in any way objective when he is so much a member of the very establishment he is supposed to be analyzing? His lack of rectitude is disturbing since it isn't as if the guy needs the money. He draws a nice pension check from the University of California pension system every month, and is a farmer to boot. But good old VDH won't stick his neck out even a bit, even when it is called for.

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  10. Unfortunatley I get to see some top Military brass as they go through the revolving door from Military to executive positions in industry. I've been saying "if these are examples of Military leadership we're in trouble" for a long time now.

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  11. In response to this article I would like to say what we are all thinking. However, I don't want to be magically disappeared.

    Who would have thought that January 6th protestors, many of them merely observers, would be held as political prisoners in violation of the Bill of Rights? I fear this country has sunk so far so fast that recovery is neigh impossible.

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    1. The January 6th rioter should be convicted of treason and thrown in jail. They are NOT political prisoners, just Trump-worshpipping criminal.

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    2. Anon, you really are a fucking idiot. What was treasonous about their actions? At the worst, they were trespassing. Supporting someone does not make anybody a criminal.
      Now go away, troll.

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  12. It used to be about loyalty and sense of duty to country....now it's all about "me"....and it did start with MacArthur and just steadily got worse....

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  13. ...and now, 'we' have the first "trans-gender FOUR STAR ADMIRAL" in the history of the world... four fucking stars on the mentally ill man masquerading as a woman, as ASSistant "Health Secretary". We are beyond fucked as a country. And if you think the rest of the fucking WORLD isn't laughing their ass of at us, then you don't know a good joke. Google a picture of that mess in its uniform... They aren't pissing on us and saying it's rain - they're pissing on us, telling us it's piss, and laughing because nothing has happened.
    Nothing has happened yet, that is...

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