[Worldtraveler once upon a time]

--- "We have the best military in the world. That's true at the Company level down. From the Field Grade up the leadership is feckless and incompetent. So we win every battle and lose every war."

I think that an apt statement. Might I expand it a bit?

We also have fine lower-level policing, but feckless and incompetent leadership above, such that, as an example, the NYC department is losing rank-and-file police.

We also have fine lower-level intelligence, but feckless and incompetent leadership above, listening to the likes of the Institute for the Study of War, which is neo-con and aggressive.

We also have fine lower-level STEM instruction in colleges but but feckless and incompetent leadership above promoting required social science BS, totally unnecessary to STEM studies.

We also have fine lower-level municipal and public employees, but feckless and incompetent leadership above, as public employee union leaders march lockstep with the other forms of feckless and incompetent leadership.

Watching the developing collapse of San Francisco is a case in point, with feckless and incompetent leadership spurring on commercial real estate crises, the abandonment of the city center by major businesses and more. Feckless and incompetent leadership in so many places.

"So we win every battle and lose every war."

[wastoute]

“Every American Institution has failed. Every profession is corrupt.” You outlined the particulars very well.