Lorelei Kelly, a diarist at the Huffington Post is worried that we’re too dependent on the US military and that it will have dire consequences at some point in the future. She admits in the opening paragraphs that the main reason Egypt’s military has presided over a somewhat peaceful transition is because the officers were trained in the United States in their responsibilities in a republic, but she doesn’t have the same faith in the trainers;
Military professionals normally observe a bright line between expert advice and political advocacy. Yet these boundaries are shifting. Here are some indicators of imbalance:
1. An overstretched military gradually resents a society that does not sacrifice. This separation stirs alienation and possibly even arrogance, increasing our civil / military divide
Our military is accustomed to operating in conditions influenced by intellectually lazy and arrogant politicians. They’re rather good at just doing their job and ignoring the flatulence that emanates from Washington and Berkely.
2. The military adopts counterinsurgency i.e. nation building. Our Army has become good at monitoring/controlling populations and engaging in economic development projects. Congress doesn’t stop or modify this trend.
It’s the military’s job since the end of World War II to adjust from war fighters to police mostly because there’s no one else in the entire world who will significantly step up to the task. Witness: the giant cluster fuck in Haiti.
3. Katrina — we used active duty forces to help bring relief to a disaster area. We become too comfortable with military troops on duty in our domestic terrrain. i.e. calls to the Mexican border.
Again, because the military does what it says it will do, while bureaucrats engage themselves in jobs programs and never seem to accomplish anything besides entrenching themselves in petty fiefdoms.
4. Rising “Veteranism” where the military is given incrementally more credibility as a legitimate political voice. Both the Left and the Right are guilty of using veteran branding.
Ask yourself “Why?”. Why do people inflate their resume`s with military experience they never had? Maybe it’s because veterans have a proven track record of unequaled performance.
5. Loss of confidence in Government — low public opinion in our elected officials and a poisoned system.
That speaks for itself.
So Ms. Kelly’s solution is to cut off funds for the military, instead of demanding that government promise fewer things it can’t accomplish, and focus more on things it can do. But, they send more civilians to muck up what the military does well (Eikenberry and his jolly band of misfits in Afghanistan, for example).
Kelly ends her missive with;
p.s. Thank you Representative Betty McCollum for pointing out the wastefulness of the NASCAR/military sponsorship. Just one more example of what needs to stop.
Yes, you addle-brained liberal. We need to stop attracting qualified and motivated youngsters to the only branch of the government that performs as it’s expected to perform.
I believe this reflects on the deepest desires of leftists if they thought they had both the functional and idealogical control over the nation’s military. This also explains why they continue to assail the armed forces with their social experimentation, to erode what they have determined is a “conservative” cancer at the heart of the enforcement apparatus of the government. Not too many years ago, I remember the “29 Palms” case study that made the rounds…leftards took note of the findings, despite the unscientific nature of the study. At their core, liberals are afraid of our military because they know that at this juncture, they cannot command its heart and soul.
Some observations on the recent events in Wisconsin:
Then-candidate Obama called for a force equal in capabilities and funding as the US military.
A lot of money went out with the stimulus, and no one is saying where the money went. The various Inspectors General were fired, retired, or neutered.
We’ve seen the employment of union employees deployed directly to the homes of politicians, staff, and non-government folks.
While engaging in very uncivil rhetoric, spoken and written on placards, few of those folks engaged in actual physical violence. The few who did required some extra-judicial juggling to get them off the hook (the Gladney case). This speaks to the unions following a ROE.
Getting Demcrat state senators out of the Capitol fixed the Republican state senators in place: they awaited a quorum call, and that fixed them in place for the assault by the unions.
The logistical heft of getting union folks to the Capitol, including bussing them from out of state, demonstrates not only the capability to transport – but also the prior planning required to get the folks to show up at the precise point on the political battlefield.
Folks, for your Friday Conspiracy Theory I present: President Obama’s ‘other Army.’
I understand what you are trying to say and agree with your opinion completely. However, the part where you lost me was right at the end when you say the military is the only branch of government that functions as it is supposed to. Your Freudian slip may or may not have been intended but the military is not a branch of government. Those would be the executive, legislative, and judicial.
And to think I went to high school with her. Jeez.
True, Bill, it is an enumerated power of the government. However, if we were to ask Chuck Schumer, the 3 branches of government are; the President, the Senate, and the House.
I’m just sayin……
Perhaps the author read this little bit:
———————————————
The Fury of the Legions
“We had been told, on leaving our native soil, that we were going to defend the sacred rights conferred on us by so many of our citizens settled overseas, so many years of our presence, so many benefits brought by us to populations in need of our assistance and our civilization.
“We were able to verify that all this was true, and because it was true, we did not hesitate to shed our quota of blood, to sacrifice our youth and our hopes. We regretted nothing, but whereas we over here are inspired by this frame of mind, I am told that in Rome factions and conspiracies are rife, that treachery flourishes, and that many people in their uncertainty and confusion lend a ready ear to the dire temptations of relinquishment and even to vilify our actions.
“I cannot believe that all this is true, and yet recent wars have shown how pernicious such a state of mind could be and to where it could lead.
“Make haste to reassure us, I beg you, and tell us that our fellow citizens understand us, support us, and protect us as we ourselves are protecting the glory of the Empire.
“If it should be otherwise, if we should have to leave our bleached bones on these desert sands in vain, then beware the fury of the Legions.”
Centurion Marcus Flavinius, Second Cohort, Augusta Legion to his cousin Tertullus in Rome.
—————————————–
I think that those few lines speak volumes, and well transcends time.
Ask yourself “Why?”. Why do people inflate their resume`s with military experience they never had? Maybe it’s because veterans have a proven track record of unequaled performance.
As a civilian fanboy of all things military, I have to comment on this; when I see military service on anyone’s resume, while it doesn’t guarantee they’re going to be brilliant, what if does tell me is that they have a concept of commitment to something. They also will have a complete grasp of working on a team to get something done, or in some cases, commanding a group of individuals working toward a goal. While not hard and fast, there’s also a greater possibility that this person will be disciplined and principled in how they approach tasks assigned to them. Again, these are generalizations, but it’s sort of like looking at a large breasted swimsuit model and wondering if she’s any good at math, but pretty much figuring she’d be a lot of fun in the bedroom. Yeah…that analogy sucked, but I was doing what I could to get “large breasted swimsuit model” worked in. Sue me.
AW1 Tim:
Ayup.
Bill,
That is a good catch. There was actually an article written about this in the Joint Force Quarterly Breaking Ranks: Dissent and the Military Professional,” (http://www.ndu.edu/press/breaking-ranks.html).
We discussed this article in great detail at ILE and there are numerous responses to the dangers of this view point. The best response I saw was this (http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2010/09/breaking-ranks/).
What gets me with this is that people like Lorelei Kelly don’t realize that members of the military are professionals and take the principles of that profession seriously. Due to that, the idea of a U.S. military coup is preposterous.
I’ve never had much affection for this term, but I think it’s accurate: our military is “housebroken.” That is, they are an integrated part of our society, not a separate power structure either along-side of, or above, our society.
Having said that, however, I will say this. A military coup, even here, is not a total impossibility. It only takes the right conditions of instability for that to become a possibility. I also will say that I hope I never live long enough to see those conditions develop.
2. The military adopts counterinsurgency i.e. nation building. Our Army has become good at monitoring/controlling populations and engaging in economic development projects. Congress doesn’t stop or modify this trend.
AUUGHH!!! Lorelei, you ditz, the military didn’t ADOPT counterinsurgency out of the blue, it was ASSIGNED that mission. Pres.. John F. Kennedy (D) giving a boost to the Army Special Forces and Navy SEALS to perform counterinsurgency back in the early 60s ring any bells with you ya frakkin moron? The civilian elected leadership gives the military it’s missions and marching orders, PERIOD.. Effin’ twit.
Oh, man…I read some of her chit at huff-n-blow…. She found pearls of wisdom in that steaming pile of bovine feces “The Hurt Locker.” I feel 100 I.Q. points stupider for having read her crap… And she’s some sort of national foreign policy guru-ese?
Jr. AG said: Oh, man…I read some of her chit at huff-n-blow…. She found pearls of wisdom in that steaming pile of bovine feces “The Hurt Locker.” I feel 100 I.Q. points stupider for having read her crap… And she’s some sort of national foreign policy guru-ese?
Um, yeah, I wonder who would hang that title on her? The left is quick to label like minded individuals as “experts” in order to give them credibility. For example; the left, and most of the msm, call Chuck Schumer an “expert” on guns. Truth is; what he knows about guns would fit on the head of a pin. The average person, being oblivious of the truth, then believes it as fact and the snowball starts down the hill.
I read the whole article, and I have to ask what she expects to happen? Civilians, with no training and no idea how to do certain tasks in stress high environments suddenly Shit out know how and calm forceful action? The Katrina one is the best. PEOPLE PANICKED!!! It got so bad and the State and Local assets were unable to respond timely. Posse Cumatatas prevents us from acting on US soil.
Are we dissatisfied with a population that wouldn’t know sacrifice if it bit it in the ass? You bet ya. But we will NOT simply throw them to the wolves. She should ask why the military didn’t take over in Vietnam, why they continued to suffer at the hands of a populace that treated them like shit, and a civilian leadership that couldn’t find its ass from a hole in the ground (Johnson)? The military was HUGE back then. If they wanted to, they could have esaily taken over and ended the war right then. But that didn’t happen.
She also complains about a budget that has grown by 67%. WE. ARE. FIGHTING. A. WAR. A Global War. On Terror. Those “overseas contingency operations” were not us sitting on our ass pretending to be doing something. That was us fighting, losing vehicles, men, and using ammo. I know it’s shocking.
Perhaps the most unforgivable error this twit touts is the whole idea of the article. To my knowledge there has been only one coup considered by the US military, even when there probably SHOULD have been one. You know what happened? George Washington simply asked them not to do it, and it ended right there! Ever wonder where Cincinnati got it’s name? Or why even when MacAurther THREATENED to exceed presidential control, he didn’t? He could have easily bombed the ever loving snot out of China, and congress would have cheered him on. He didn’t.
@ Daniel: the major problem with knowing when to disobey orders is that those extreme times would require extraordinary orders. Short of several multi-state disasters, and large sections of the NCI missing, or dead I do not see that happening, as our recent DADT repeal shows, legitimate concerns by TWO service chiefs mostly responsible for actually conducting the war effort were largely ignored, despite the potential damage it might cause to said war effort.
Someone needs to sit down Betty McCollum how things like a volunteer military in a free society works since she can’t seemed to connect the dots on her own. Explain to her that you have to advertise the military and it’s benefits to attract quality people and that the better, and more effectively targeted, the advertising the better sort of people you can attract while reducing long term costs associated with bribing your enlisted personnel. Excuse me, I meant do re-up bonuses.
There really is no hope for these people is there? I wrote a post a day or two ago about Armies reflecting the socities that create them. Jonn, I’m getting exacerpated just thinking of writing a response to this, good job.
As a followup to AW1 Tim, and considering that most libs were Liberal Arts majors, I think this one plays into the mindset, too:
“How swiftly Caesar had surmounted the icy Alps and in his mind conceived immense upheavals, coming war. When he reached the water of the Little Rubicon, clearly to the leader through the murky night appeared a mighty image of his country in distress, grief in her face, her white hair streaming from her tower-crowned head, with tresses torn and shoulders bare she stood before him, and sighing said:
‘Where further do you march? Where do you take my standards, warriors? If lawfully you come, if as citizens, this far only is allowed.’
Then trembling struck the leader’s limbs; his hair grew stiff and weakness checked his progress, holding his feet at the river’s edge. At last he speaks:
‘O Thunderer, surveying great Rome’s walls from the Tarpeian Rock —
‘O Phrygian house gods of Iulus, clan and mysteries of Quirinus who was carried off to heaven —
‘O Jupiter of Latium, seated in lofty Alba and hearths of Vesta —
‘O Rome, equal to the highest deity, favor my plans.
Not with impious weapons do I pursue you. Here am I, Caesar, conqueror of land and sea, your own soldier, everywhere, now, too, if I am permitted. The man who makes me your enemy — it is he who be the guilty one.’
Then he broke the barriers of war and through the swollen river swiftly took his standards. And Caesar crossed the flood and reached the opposite bank. From Hesperia’s forbidden fields he took his stand and said:
‘Here I abandon peace and desecrated law.
Fortune, it is you I follow.
Farewell to treaties.
From now on war is our judge.’
Hail, Caesar: We who are about to die salute you.”
-Marcus Lucanus
I extended an invitation for her to come here and try to defend her statements. We’ll see what she does.
It’s their fantasy. A military take over. Unlike the (other) countries they love or the despots they coddle, the US military is bound and a part of the fabric of the United States.
Cuba? China? The USSR? Latin America? Their militaries were/are draft based separate societies living high on the hog to that they can put their boot on the neck of the people.