Friday, July 1, 2016

Does the American Military Have a Morale Problem?

Does the American military have a morale problem? Does anyone care?

The Obama administration, even more than previous administrations has decided to use the military as a social experiment. An experiment in diversity, an experiment in putting women into the combat infantry, an experiment in judging officers by their belief in climate change, and now, to top it all off, an experiment with transgendered soldiers.

Many of these experiments have caused problems. Some have not yet been implemented. What has been implemented is the Obama administration strategy to walk away from military conflict. The military is no longer about honor and dignity. It is no longer about winning wars. It is about PR opportunities, macho posturing and social justice.

Obama brags that he got us out of war. Tell it to the people of Syria, to the people of Iraq, to the Europeans who are being flooded with refugees. And tell it to the Americans who died in Benghazi when the Obama administration couldn’t manage to do anything to defend them.

And then there is the Obama attitude of obsequious obeisance to the ayatollahs of Iran, a deal that will provide Iran with a pathway to nuclear weapons and that will give it over $100 billion to conduct terrorist operations.

Remember when American sailors were captured and publicly humiliated by the Iranian navy in the Persian Gulf? I’m sure you do. Now, we hear about the way our brave sailors behaved when captured. One expected that the administration would not have their back, but one would not have expected that these brave sailors would have pulled an Obama, caving to pressure, showing no honor or dignity.

The Daily Mail reports on the Navy’s investigation:

Weak leadership, poor judgment, a lack of 'warfighting toughness' and a litany of other errors led to the embarrassing capture of 10 U.S. sailors by Iran back in January, Navy investigators say.

But, doesn’t that describe Barack Obama? Who else has embodied weak leadership and lack of warfighting toughness? Where else would they have learned it?

The Daily Mail continues:

After their capture the men were unprepared for interrogation, gave away information including the passwords to phones and laptops, and details about their vessel and mission, officials said.

The boat's commanders also broke protocol by agreeing to be filmed eating and looking happy by their Iranian captors, and agreeing to read a statement of apology in order to be released.

Both actions were ultimately unnecessary as the American government had already negotiated their unconditional release, according to the official Navy report into the incident, released today. 

Other mistakes included commanders underestimating the risks of the mission, providing limited backup in the case of an emergency, poor navigation by crews, and a lack of oversight.

In fact the mission was so riddled with errors that the Navy now plans to use it as a test case in training as an example of what not to do.

Glad to see that the Navy has taken some time off from its climate change seminars. Glad that it has taken some time off from preparing to welcome the new transgendered soldiers. Then again, Secretary of Defense Carter says that the transgendered soldiers will strengthen the fighting force? Huh? How stupid do they think the American people are?

But still, someone needs to point out that these soldiers were merely emulating the example set their commander in chief. The failure did not happen in a vacuum.


4 comments:

Marsh said...

My son is in Afghanistan. He told me the morale is very low. So, yes, it does have a morale problem and I care about that!

We need a new CIC. Praying it will be Trump.

AesopFan said...

Interesting companion articles today - even if we get a serious administration in place, will we have a military left that can fight the war Peters recommends?

AesopFan said...

About the Iranians and the Navy boat, by the way, here is an important article from a former Navy intel analyst:
http://libertyunyielding.com/2016/06/30/cno-reality-iran-created-incident-off-farsi-island-january-violating-maritime-law/

"Let’s be very clear about this. You are being led to believe that “the story” about this incident is that the U.S. Navy screwed up. Its boat crews were ill-prepared for the transit on 12 January 2016, during which armed Iranian forces seized the boats, raised the Iranian flag on them, and put the American sailors in detention. The task force commander in charge of the boats exercised poor judgment in authorizing the transit. Blah blah blah; nine people are being “disciplined.” The Navy is taking a fall on its sword for the public’s benefit.

But without excusing the Navy (and without assuming we’ve been told everything relevant either), it is easily possible to establish that you are being misled about this whole thing.

All it takes is acknowledging the fact that Iran violated international maritime law, by seizing the Navy riverine boats and detaining the crews.

That means this is all Iran’s fault. It’s only because of what Iran did that this became an “incident” to begin with.

The U.S. Navy, ill-prepared or not, and whether or not its people made tactical mistakes, had no reason, as a routine matter, to expect the Iranians to seize the boats and the crewmen.

Let that sink in.

If the Iranians had behaved in the proper manner expected of them under international law – the way the U.S. behaves, the way most other nations behave – there would have been no incident. Period, full stop. Because there was no reason for one."

* * *
J. E. Dyer is one of the best sources for shrewd analysis of foreign affairs, especially in the Middle East, and what's really going on from the military perspective.

Suzy Parker said...
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