In Beijing, China, at the HQ of the Peoples’ Liberation Army, there must be General in charge of planning for war with the United States who is smiling and saying to himself, “This is going to be easier than I thought…”
This past week I attended a reunion of veterans who served at Nakon Phanom Royal Thai Air Force Base (NKP) during the Vietnam war. NKP was a Thai base used by US special operations during the ‘Secret War’ in Laos and North Vietnam. I doubt you can find a group more pro-military — or at least they used to be.
The vets of that base were the sort who encourage others to join the military. No more! I didn’t speak to any who would advise a young person to join — while there is a Democrat Commander-in-Chief.
Many of them, like me, have family members currently in the military, so we know the problems first hand. With the possible exception (at least for now) of the Marine Corps, the United States military has become a joke — as one fellow vet put it. Another said, “We don’t have a military anymore!”
I, and my fellow vets, believe what we have now is a fatally flawed social engineering experiment that will get a lot of people killed if we ever have to fight — due to the incompetence of a Defense Department being run by bureaucrats appointed for their political correctness rather than ability to win a war. The problem started with the Obama administration, and is getting worse under Biden. Trump’s failure was that he left in place the top command that had been promoted by Obama.
Every veteran knows the difference between a “warhorse”, who earned rank by performance in the field, and a “show pony” who advanced their career by planting their lips firmly against the asses of their political leaders. You can recognize a show pony because they have (in Bob Dylan’s words) “a hundred pounds of headlines stapled to his chest”.
Our military has systematically been purged of “war horses” who have been replaced by “show ponies”. The effect has been degradation of operational effectiveness.
“In 2015, then Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus rejected out-of-hand a Marine Corps study concluding that gender-integrated combat formations did not move as quickly or shoot as accurately, and that women were twice as likely as men to suffer combat injuries. He rejected it because it did not comport with the Obama administration’s political agenda.”
“Under the Biden administration, the Department of Defense (DOD) pushed through a raft of policies elevating racial and gender diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as fighting climate change, as a department priority. This “woke” agenda, brought on by elected and appointed leaders, counteracts the military’s culture of merit and distracts from the DOD’s primary mission to defend the U.S. from external threats”.
“The Army …. attempted to modify its physical fitness test to better measure combat readiness as opposed to overall fitness. However, after finding that women failed the test at disproportionately high rates compared to men, the Army once again adjusted scoring to account for gender weaknesses.”
History suggests what happens when a robust military gets politicized. From SMLEO.com
“Stalin’s purges [of the military] not only had disastrous effects on the Soviet populace, but they also significantly harmed the Red Army’s effectiveness … the stunning Soviet defeats during the German invasion in 1941 further exposed the deep wounds that the purges caused. The Red Army leadership that remained after the purges utilized ineffective and outdated tactics, and a lack of effective officers meant that the Red Army had no answer to the German’s modern and fast-paced attack.”
I recently watched an interaction between a Congressman, and some Department of Defense bureaucrats. The DOD lackeys were asked if their focus on ‘Diversity, Equity & Inclusion’ contributed to their failure to meet recruiting and retention goals. In an epic example of bureaucratic self-delusion, they said it was not a factor.
Really? Because I just spent a couple of days with veterans who say it’s the number one reason they have changed their opinions about our military — and now discourage potential recruits from enlisting.
The Byzantines were the last of the once militarily dominant Roman Empire. They prevailed from the capital of the Eastern empire, in Constantinople, for a millennium after the fall of the western empire in Rome.
But the Byzantines were finally conquered because of their own internal decay. The similarities between their fate, and what is befalling the United States, are evident.
“Beijing believes that the United States is decadent, undeserving of its affluence, living beyond its means on the fumes of the past — and very soon vulnerable enough to challenge openly…”
As I said – there is a Chinese general chuckling to himself that it will be easier than he thought.
Gary Beatty lives between Florida and Pagosa Springs. He retired after 30 years as a prosecutor for the State of Florida, has a doctorate in law, is Board Certified in Criminal Trial law by the Florida Supreme Court, and is now a law professor.