Category Archives: Military

Yesterday Fort Stewart, home of the 3rd Infantry Division, held a tree dedication ceremony in memory of another fallen soldier, SGT Aaron Wittman, 28 years old.   He was the first American soldier killed in  Afghanistan this year, but this tree dedication is but one of  445 for this military installation.  The news article can be found here.

A few years ago I attended one of these tree dedication ceremonies and memorials should serve as a reminder to us all.   It made me tear up just seeing these long lines of trees with personal items placed around the base by their brothers and sisters in arms, their friends and family.  It forcefully reminds you that these were all young people in the prime of their lives who died in service to our country.   We should never forget that the policies our government follows come at a very real cost for those in uniform.  This young soldier’s father said his son, “loved being a soldier”.  We should never forget these brave soldiers, but we need to demand accountability of our leaders in Washington.  President Obama should attend a few of these ceremonies and talk to the families, at least as often as he has time to golf.

This is an excellent commentary by Major General Patrick Brady, U.S. Army (retired) – (Here).  He raises  many excellent points and makes the case quite eloquently on why women don’t belong in combat.  We’d do much better as a society if we started focusing on respecting the differences between men and women, rather than trying to emasculate men and masculinize (yep, had to check my trusty Webster’s for that one) women.  If we started from the ground truth that men and women aren’t physically or psychologically the same, which there’s a plethora of research and daily observation to attest to this fact, we might be better able to formulate policies that make military sense as well as being inclusive of women.   By using a fact-based, reality-based framework to formulate policies, then we could reasonably discuss the military requirements and put in place standards that we will enforce, instead of playing this game of willfully turning a blind-eye when women can’t meet the standards and due to political pressure pretending they do.  Lowering standards to accommodate this political agenda only degrades our military competence.  There are so many people, both men and women, buying into the decades old myths about female performance in the field and cherry-picking only the female success stories, while ignoring the troubling large number of  problems that negatively impact missions.  Ralph Peters wrote a New York Post column in January, “Sergeant rock-ette” (Here), where he predicated his glowing endorsement of accepting women with open arms (figuratively speaking, I am sure) on if it’s “done right”.  Nothing regarding integration of women has ever been put to the simple test that men and women in the military must meet the same physical standards for a MOS, so how on earth he thinks this will be any different defies logic.  I served a short time and from day one, there were different physical standards, yet they sent women with these very different physical standards into many jobs that required a great deal of physical strength and endurance.  I observed the real results first-hand and formed my opinion, which I’ll repeat again, all military missions should be based on what assets best fit the mission.   Fair standards be damned, what we need are the highest standards,  in my book, if we want to win wars and maintain our military preeminence. Even survival in a field training environment places more stresses on a female body than on a male body.  These basic biological differences will always hamper female performance in combat jobs where only the strongest males succeed.   It would be real eye-opener if the actual statistics and facts on integration ever reached the light of day.  Major General Brady’s piece offered a blast of fresh air to the topic, where most military officers prefer to take the three wise monkey path – see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.  I admire his candor!

An American Thinker piece titled, “On  Giving Pro-Obama Military Veterans A Pass”, written by Dan Nagasaki and Glenn Doi (here), offers some important historical examples of why veteran status does not in any way indicate whether a person is qualified to be Secretary of Defense.  In today’s military it is a rarity to find even four-star generals with the historical vision, strategic aptitude and  most importantly,  the sterling character required to be exemplars worthy of leading  the United States Armed Forces.   In the present case of Chuck Hagel’s competence, clearly his combat experience , in and of itself, does nothing to recommend him to be Secretary of Defense.  Yet too many in the media and in our society, at large, pay blind homage to military service, in an almost reflexive way to atone for the disgraceful treatment of our military during the Vietnam era.

Perhaps we would be better able to make decisions if we started out with a list of job requirements,  just like we’d begin with any other job.  If we did a checklist of job requirements and checked them off as we assessed Chuck Hagel, it would become clear as day, just by his pathetic confirmation hearing, that he isn’t fit for a job that requires making decisions for a vastly complex organization like our Defense Department.  He didn’t even seem clear on strategic issues or where we stand on many of these issues and yet, President Obama thinks this man is the best choice for this difficult, challenging and vastly important position?   Aside from Hagel’s disturbing personal history of making remarks about Israel and Iran, he seemed so unprepared for his confirmation hearing, that one might wonder how he would handle all the highly detailed decision-making this job will require.  Yes, of course he will have plenty of flunkies and Obama policy wonks peeking over his shoulder to make sure he sticks to the administration track, but he will still need to represent the US in important talks and dealing with our military allies and adversaries.  He will get confirmed though and then at every turn, President Obama will remind us that Chuck Hagel is a Republican, to deflect us from the dismantling of the greatest military in the world.

Now to take this topic to a broader context, the media and the public give veterans and military service constant praise, but regarding military matters, they prefer to remain completely ignorant and blindly accepting of military experience, military  “expertise” and most dangerously, they accept everything someone with military rank says as some sort of fount of military knowledge and wisdom.   It’s way past time to start questioning these military “experts” that the media foists on us and also to begin questioning the theories, strategies and policies these people spout.   To blindly follow based on some flashy medals on a chest, makes us dupes, no better than those following a tinpot dictator.  This common thread advice of mine definitely fits this situation: Think For Yourself!   A citizenry of blind followers and media “fans” could prove our undoing if we keep traveling this path, where the public, at large, won’t bother to read The Constitution and start taking an interest in learning some military history.  Sure, most people don’t want to become military historians or strategists, but truly most strategies should be easily understood by people of average intelligence.  If a strategy sounds highly complicated and convoluted, just apply common sense and realize that it just might be a bunch of malarkey.  Start trusting in your own good common sense and less in fancy titles, military ranks and highfalutin terminology.  Break any strategy down to its parts and you’ll be able to assess it without a doctorate degree.  We should demand that our leaders and all these “experts”, who foist so much loopy,  top-lofty-sounding tripe on us, be able to put their ideas in plain English and then we would quickly see that most of  it’s more hot air than strategic expertise.  Ask questions until you get answers that make sense and stop buying into other people’s bullshit (sorry I couldn’t think of a more genteel way to say that)!