Posted on 04/15/2023 5:33:16 PM PDT by CFW
This is on General McKenzie’s head. His intelligence staff, his operations staff, his logistics staff.
And there isn’t a fifth star. He should have resigned in protest over the plan to pull out in the fashion we did after giving up Bagram.
It’s very worth the time if you’re ever on a drive or something. To listen to him. Basically he argues that in World War II general Scott fired. They were constantly being fired and relieved of command. And that being fired was not the end of your career it just meant you didn’t work in that position they will pull you out and try to get you somewhere better. But he says basically you have 90 days to perform are you were gone. He said that changed in Vietnam with the one year tour, and continue to enter the Middle East where you had a one-year tour no matter what you did. And the only incentive was not to screw up. So it creates timid leaders. Lots of amazing examples of World War II. And a lot of fascinating things about George Marshall I had never heard before. George Marshall walked in the door when World War II kicked off, and fired nearly all of the senior generals and Colonels and told them they were too old and would never lead troops in combat And he names names, from World War II, right up through our latest in Afghanistan and Iraq.
If your going to war the only rules of engagement should be:
1: Find the enemy
2: Close with the enemy
3: Kill the enemy
Yes there will be collateral damage, it’s called WAR!
I had known that officers in the Army and the Navy were fired and replaced early in WWII and always felt that was bold and of course correct, mediocre officers had been allowed to gather moss during the peacetime years but when we faced the big war, somehow we had enough leadership at the top, that established officers were replaced with what were known to be more aggressive men who were better suited for war.
Lincoln fired a number of generals before he found Grant.
Yep! Totally agree.
After obama kicked out so many patriots, all that was left 15+ years later for President Trump to choose from was democrat party generals.
It has gotten worse since. Wait until you see what the racist USAF general who replaces Milley will do. You will see.
What ails the military is pretty simple. Fighting men had mothers, daughters, wives they would fight for. Their lives had purpose and meaning outside of the military. The also had swag. Not today. It’s promotion based in n skin color or sex since the 80s… it’s why I got out. I see no honor in their quota system.
“the enlisted promotion system in the Navy is the fairest I’ve seen”
See: https://freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/4145663/posts?page=41#41
I once sat in on a meeting where we were considering the radar cross-section of ships. One of the best ways to help this is to minimize “apertures” (antennas).
I suggested that we fire half of the admirals, so we would eliminate half of the orders given, thus we would be able to remove half the apertures reducing the ship RCS, making it more survivable.
The room got quiet for a moment as they processed my suggestion before deciding that i must be joking.
I didnt push the matter, as nobody really wanted to hear from the engineer, but while my analysis had intentionally humorous flaws, there was a certain logic to it that nobody could deny.
“I didnt push the matter, as nobody really wanted to hear from the engineer, but while my analysis had intentionally humorous flaws, there was a certain logic to it that nobody could deny.”
The best kind of humor!
In partial defense of not looking at the metrics, many of the metrics are meaningless, and some of the most important factors of leadership are very hard to measure. The big problem is that instead of admitting that the metrics are at best partially relevant and putting effort into finding and developing better metrics, so many organizations just ignore inconvenient metrics.
May interest you. Downloadable as a PDF file, the book: The Things They Carried
https://lessonbank.kyae.ky.gov/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/TTTC_Full_Text.pdf
For Later
From personal experience; those who were promoted first were the super PT studs, because nothing says “I’m a great leader” like being able to max and exceed physical requirements. Then the networkers(AKA butt kissers). The rest of us had to be fit, competent, and wait our turn.
We were winning when I left….
RLTW
I’ve seen first hand where soldiers who shouldn’t have gotten past MEPS get sent to the front of the line for promotions while others who excel on PT, weapons qual, know their jobs, and go above and beyond have to wait out and receive their mandatory time in service promotions.
Shortly after George C Marshall became the Army’s Chief of Staff in 1939, he realized that during the inter war years that the army had become too reliant on an unofficial good old boy network of West point graduates who greased too many undeserved promotional skids.
Therefore, he instituted a series of southern state pre war maneuvers, (The most prominent being the Louisiana Maneuvers, which bought George S Patton to preeminence) which were intended to professionalize the Army, but most importantly, to winnow the chaff from the officer corp. Over a thousand officers in the Louisiana show alone were accordingly reassigned or cashiered, including 31 of 42 corps and division commanders. Marshall was keenly concerned about the cauldron that his Army was about to be hurled into, and he wanted to ensure it’s eventual victory in battle, with the least cost in human life.
The objective then was to, as best as could be achieved, promote the elevation of meritocracy and competence over most other considerations.
Today, the goal seems to be to worship the corrupt cultural Marxist notion of diversity, equity, and inclusion, to elevate the otherwise unqualified largely on the basis of certain immutable characteristics, which is sure to destroy combat efficiency and shatter morale.
Could that really be the point of it?
In past years I might have said something about the Dunning Kruger effect and how, when dealing with the government, always bet on stupid over evil. But when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs will call the nation’s most dangerous potential enemy and assure them he will let them know if the commander in chief intends anything hostile to them, that could be the entire point.
It’s 2023. There are no “far out” conspiracy theories, sadly.
In past years I might have said something about the Dunning Kruger effect and how, when dealing with the government, always bet on stupid over evil. But when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs will call the nation’s most dangerous potential enemy and assure them he will let them know if the commander in chief intends anything hostile to them, that could be the entire point.
It’s 2023. There are no “far out” conspiracy theories, sadly.
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