People are understandably fed up with Islamic crazies killing innocent people
notes
Benny Huang, a veteran who also is sick of it, "though less eager to send ground troops" abroad (thanks for the
InstaLink) — although not necessarily for the reasons you might think.
Not that we have any good options.
… I believe that most of that 53 percent of Americans who want to send
our young people back to the sandbox labor under the mistaken belief
that our military is a well-oiled machine that will make mincemeat out
of ISIS. I would warn these people that our military is actually pretty
ragged—under-funded, undertrained, and sorely lacking in the morale
department. Most importantly, it’s been wussified—forced by politicians
and general officers to become the “kindler gentler military” Stephanie
Gutmann warned of fifteen years ago in her seminal book by the same
name. If you haven’t read it, you need to.
Slashed military budgets have shrunken our armed forces. The US Army
is now the smallest it’s been since before World War II and the US Navy
the smallest since before World War I. We’re still asking this skeleton
crew to keep the sea lanes open and to hold down the fort in Korea,
something we didn’t ask of them in our pre-superpower era.
Morale continues its descent into the abyss. … Only 27 percent said that officers in senior leadership positions had
the rank-and-file’s best interest at heart—a clear indicator that
careerism is having a corrosive effect on the military. As journalist
Hope Hodge Seck wrote in the Military Times: “Today’s service members
say they feel underpaid, under-equipped and under-appreciated, the
survey data show.”
“
… Perhaps the most terrifying trend in today’s military is the
diminution of the warrior spirit. This “wussification” of the US
military has probably been underway for decades but it shifted into
hyperdrive after the ascendency of Barack Obama. His campaign to get
women into combat arms positions—even elite units—without lowering
standards was exposed as a farce at the very same press conference at
which it was unveiled. As General Martin Dempsey famously pronounced in
January 2013, “Importantly, though, if we do decide that a particular
standard is so high that a woman couldn’t make it, the burden is now on
the service to come back and explain to the secretary, why is it that
high? Does it really have to be that high?” But don’t worry, standards
won’t be lowered—and you’re sexist if you say otherwise.
The wussification of the Army is nearing its end stage. … This is not your father’s Army. It isn’t even the Army I joined in
1999. My drill sergeants relished “smoking” the privates. I recall one
particularly hard drill sergeant who I’m quite certain would not
graduate from today’s Drill Sergeant School on account of his
old-fashioned approach to training. Whether the privates were getting
enough TLC was not his top concern.
… I lost forty pounds in basic training and gained a lot of self
confidence. That would not have happened if Danielle Brooks had been my
drill sergeant.
Before we go sending the bloom of our youth to fight crazy dudes on a
mission from Allah, it might be prudent to ask ourselves if we have
truly prepared them.
Check out the website that Benny Huang works for:
Wounded American Warrior
