It is a truism in history that when a nation’s military begins to rot, it is usually noticed first among the leadership:
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley on Thursday expressed regret for accompanying President Trump during a photo-op last week at Lafayette Square amid protests, calling the decision “a mistake” – in the latest sign of friction between the White House and the military over the response to racial unrest.
Milley made the remarks during a remote video speech to graduates at National Defense University, advising young officers to “always maintain a keen sense of situational awareness.”
“As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched,” he said. “And I am not immune.
“As many of you saw, the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week. That sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society,” Milley continued. “I should not have been there. My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
He added: “As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I have learned from, and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.”
Go here to read the rest. From what I have heard, Milley stayed up late the night after the incident reading online criticism. So, we have the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs stabbing the President in the back due, in part, to what morons typing in their mothers’ basements unleashed online. The General, while the nation is rocked with riots, with the civil police under continual assault, and at a time when the nation’s capital has been the scene of violent riots, decides it is time to publicly dis the Commander in Chief. He should be immediately fired and court-martialed.
Obama during his eight years did his best to recreate the military in his image, and he succeeded. Old line warriors were side-lined, and time serving bureaucrats in uniform like Milley were advanced. Obama left Trump a thoroughly politicized force, and Trump has done little to change this, being a babe in the woods when it comes to dealing with the vast Federal bureaucracies. The time servers at the top of the military view Trump as a bump in the road of Democrat dominance of the White House as far as the eye can see, and this is doubtless just the opening salvo in attempts by the Pentagon to undermine Trump prior to November. Trump needs a man like Attorney General Barr in the office of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, if such a man can be found among the ranks of uniformed court eunuchs with stars on their shoulders who care about their own careers and little else.
Unless Trump exercises his role as Commander and Chief he will not be re-elected. Now is the perfect opportunity for him to show who is boss. The Seattle situation would be a good place to demonstrate that his #1 concern is the safety and security of American citizens.
For last several months America has been held hostage by the Democrat supported (inspired?) virus lockdowns that crippled our economy, etc. Now riots and Democrat orchestrated accusations of racism are further eroding our sense of security and safety. The situation is getting out of control.
Do something President Trump before its too late!
Our assumption seemed to be that if there was ever a power grab in America, our military and law enforcement would balk and defend the country. Given the military and police taking knees, siding with the Left and even willingly supporting the worst narratives, I’m not so sure we have that to count on now
“They” order cops not to shoot looters, rioters, and insurrectionists. But, they salivate in anticipation at ordering infantry, artillery and nuclear weapons units to massacre real Americans.
The top brass has no contact or relation to the troops. Typically, the last contact with troops was if they commanded a battalion, and then only very indirectly through 100 junior officers and NCO’s. The active duty infantry, airborne, and ranger troops I know are 180-drgrees opposite these black lives matter-worshipping imbeciles with stars on their shoulder.
I think you and Schlichter are attributing too much talent to Obama. The Army Chief of Staff who made those inane remarks in response to the Nidal Hassan incident was appointed by George W Bush. The decay of West Point also began under Bush. It appears the military is not impervious to the miasma floating through the professional-managerial class generally.
Art, you are correct. The two Bushes were terrible in nearly every aspect from my point of view. RINOs in every way. Over and over they would say and do things, appoint people, etc, thinking they would FINALLY have the media’s loving praise. I said many times, that if they had a D after their name they would have been some of the left’s fondest Presidents but because of the R, they were excoriated by the media. Even the past several years they would repeatedly undercut and not support the current Republican President. Saying one thing then doing another when push came to shove.
Ross Perot was right in his intense dislike of the elder Bush.
Art, you are correct. The two Bushes were terrible in nearly every aspect from my point of view. RINOs in every way.
You shouldn’t use the term ‘RINO’ to describe two people who, between them, were the Republican nominee for President on four distinct occasions. Nobody Jedi-mindtricked Repubican voters into casting a ballot for these two. Their principal opponents were Robert Dole, Pat Robertson, John McCain, and Alan Keyes. That is to say, two men vulnerable to the same mess of complaints you’d have about the Bushes and two men who presented a different set of problems.
I don’t know if Ross Perot disliked George Bush the Elder personally or not. The Bushes can be exasperating as public figures, but there’s not much wrong with the rest of their lives (bar the post-presidential buckraking and the degree to which W’s business career was a function of connections).
My wager would be George W Bush and his minions made appointments in the military according to who ended up on a list consequent to bureaucratic arcana, not realizing quite what they were doing. The problem is the culture of the professional-managerial bourgeoisie. I’d like to think these problems skipped over the military, but evidently they didn’t.
It goes back to the Clinton era as far as change to the military – social engineering.
As far as the U. S. Military Academy, I’d like to hear from graduates.
It goes back to the Clinton era as far as change to the military – social engineering.
There was an outfit in the military called DACOWITs that did considerable damage. Not sure if it was a Clinton-era scam or it antedated the Clintons. There was discussion ca. 2001 about eliminating it, but I’m not sure if the Bush crew ever did that. Bush was very non-confrontational with the domestic opposition.
Note, for decades prior we had gender-norming of performance scores to maintain the proportion of women in the service. Personally, I think integrating women into the service was a mistake, but having done so, we should have had common performance standards. You want separate standards, have a separate women’s auxilliary. IIRC, the women’s auxilliaries were discontinued around 1970. Nowadays, you have Hawaiian judges claiming the president cannot set disciplinary standards which exclude head cases, so we must accept women who fancy they are men and men who fancy they are women. Of course, the Republicans in Congress do nothing to strip the courts of any claim to jurisdiction in such matters.
Prior to the integration of women, you had Robert McNamara attempting to recruit and train people whose psychometric scores fell below a certain minimum. Not sure when the statutory minima was put into effect, but the military has tested recruits for a century. I think there were 200,000 recruits in this program. It turned out rather badly, though I cannot remember how it was resolved. That was around 1966.
NB, Schlichter (who was a colonel in the Army) is quite radical on this point. He thinks Trump should cashier all flag-rank officers and invite just a few to return. I don’t have an informed opinion on the matter, but my gut tells me that might be a solution in regard to the Justice Department, not the military. Fire all the lawyers and invite a few back.
DACOWITS ( Defense Advisory Committee On Women In The Services) “Under President Jimmy Carter the (civilian) committee began to function as a tax-funded feminist lobby, and it became increasingly radical during the administration of Bill Clinton. Defying the advice of military experts and the views of the majority of women in uniform, the committee repeatedly pushed for feminist goals such as co-ed basic training and the assignment of women to submarines, special operations helicopters, multiple launch field artillery, and newly forming land combat units. They did so with the protocol status of three-star generals and admirals, with little public awareness and no accountability.”
Very apt description. I was the Protocol Officer/Visitor Services Officer when the first women were admitted to the U. S. Naval Academy. Myself and a handful of other staff WAVE officers and chiefs were on an Academy advisory board. When DACOWITS came to visit it was clear to us that these women didn’t have a clue about life in the service and in particular, the rigorous physical demands on midshipmen (which is a rank). However, they certainly did have a feminist agenda. Personally I felt that there was no reason for females to be admitted to a school whose mission was to train and educate future warfare specialists when at that time navy women were barred from warfare specialties. Now women are included in most all communities even in combat which the latter in my opinion is a big mistake.
Beginning in WWII there were women auxiliaries: Women Accepted For Voluntary Emergency Services aka WAVES, Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps aka WAACs, Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Service aka WAFS, Women’s Auxiliary Service Pilots aka WASPS, United States Coast Guard Women’s Reserve aka SPARS ( a nautical term), and Women Marines informally aka BAMs (Broad-Axel Marines),