Posted on 06/02/2013 2:00:48 PM PDT by DJ Taylor
STANFORD, Calif. — AFTER fighting two wars in nearly 12 years, the United States military is at a turning point. So are the American people. The armed forces must rethink their mission. Though the nation has entered an era of fiscal constraint, and though President Obama last week effectively declared an end to the “global war on terror” that began on Sept. 11, 2001, the military remains determined to increase the gap between its war-fighting capabilities and those of any potential enemies. But the greatest challenge to our military is not from a foreign enemy — it’s the widening gap between the American people and their armed forces.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It is a problem when the country votes for a commander in chief who hates the military and who flaunts his command over them.
it’s the widening gap between the American people and their armed forces.
And then there is Hillary! waiting in the wings with the highest poll numbers (so far) and to her the military are pigs that she treats like servants.
Not sure who I detest more - zero or the Clintons. We’re all pawns to them in their ego game.
There are families that join the military, but if they checked the statistics, most first contract enlistees DO NOT reenlist and there is a VERY high turnover rate. To get the recruitment numbers just go to the DOD and they post it every month.
http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=15904
and then there are those we lost to suicide
http://www.defense.gov/releases/release.aspx?releaseid=16033
So, let me guess....according to the NY Times, the only way to fix this problem is:
1. More diversity, with LGBTs in charge
2. Create a new military mission to do social work in the US.
3. Have the military swear allegiance to Obama (vs. the Constitution)
It’s the people at the New York Times and their subscribers who are alienated from the US military. Most people think the military are fine. When my boy—now a new Marine—walks around in an airport people grab him by the hand and thank him. He hasn’t done anything noble yet, but just the fact that he enlisted moves them.
The other day I had to go to Home Depot and needed a cap, so I grabbed something hanging by the back door and jumped in the car. Every place I went that afternoon people (mostly men) were nodding and smiling at me, or saying “Thank you.” It took me awhile to realize that I was wearing my son’s extra Marpat camo utility cover. I’m a middle-aged lady but people recognized the cap and thanked me for service they thought I’d done.
Of course I took the cap off when I realized what was going on—no stolen valor for me. Still, some people thanked me even after I explained. They thanked me for raising a Marine.
When my daughter drives around with a sticker on her car that says “Proud Sister of a US Marine,” people honk and wave and yell “Semper Fi!”
I’m not sure we as a nation are all that distant from our military. It’s the doctors/lawyers/chiefs in my community who are mystified and pitying about our family’s decision. They think my son chose to go into the service because he had no other options. They don’t realize how tough it was to get into the USMC and stay there through the incredible physical and psychological rigors of Parris Island. They live in a little liberal dreamland and don’t know that someone’s brilliant, talented son has to protect their elite backsides.
I detest their supporters and enablers.
Just reading the comments, no interest in the article.
The NYT itself is the example of Americans and Their Press Drifting Apart.
NYT is clueless on any matter related to the military as well as the American people.
No clue.
Karl W. Eikenberry, a retired Army lieutenant general, was the United States commander in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007 and the ambassador there from 2009 to 2011. He is a fellow at Stanford, where David M. Kennedy is an emeritus professor of history. They are, respectively, a contributor to and the editor of “The Modern American Military.”
Thanks for raising a Marine, from a Master Sgt, USAF, retired.
Exactly! It may be true in New York, but the people here in the heartland are only alienated from the NYT!
The media has hated the military for at least 50 years.
There is a certain theme which I have seen repeated on TV shows and movies over and over again. Some kid or genius or maybe even a corporate mogul develops some great invention which will be a boon to mankind only to discover that those evil military guys plan to use it as a weapon.
I’ve got a living room full of them eating Sloppy Joes and slinging BS right this minute!
They have also infected the major institution that protects us from the animals of the world by injecting diversity training and policy when it comes to all non whites and muslims, human rights according to the UN, and lastly the biggy, homosexuality. Purposley and deliberately planting the cancer that will eat away our last hope for survival and leave us all vulnerable.
we have a permanent military with too many seeking the wages, the benefits, and the pensions...
our military "leaders" are bowing and kissing the arse of you know who and throwing our young guys out with the trash.....I get the impression that our military brass would sell our country out to the islamists if it meant more money...
I don't trust the military anymore.....it truly is the worst of the military/industrial complex that Ike talked about...
Obama has done everything in his power to make this so.
You mean I should read it?
OK I read it.
Here’s what I found:
“. . .so that more service members could pray, play and educate their children alongside their fellow Americans. Schools, the media and organs of popular culture also have a duty to help promote civic vigilance.”
The NYT published this piece completely ignoring the idea that the American people have been under an even wider chasm between themselves and the education of their children than that of themselves and their military and that civil vigilance is Utterly under attack from the IRS, the ATF, OSHA and this president who does not like them and they know it.
The article is obtuse.
As further evidenced by this statement:
The civilian-military divide erodes the sense of duty that is critical to the health of our democratic republic, where the most important office is that of the citizen. While the armed forces retool for the future, citizens cannot be mere spectators. As Adams said about military power: “A wise and prudent people will always have a watchful and a jealous eye over it.”
Which ignores the feelings borne by those of us who are not at all surprised by the subject matters of the current admin scandals.
And the NYT and the writers ignore the fact that we who defend and protect the Constitution are wholly un represented by the current Congress, who is more out of touch than anyone mentioned.
0bama cuts the military off at the knees, leaving his DHS Stormtroopers to keep him in power long after his term ends. That’s why they have labeled Veterans as “threats”.
I think it depends on the time frame. There were a lot of the children of WWII Officers who went into the Army.
Now, physiology is determining the content of the older Soldiers in the Army. The cold, hard fact is that you must have a trim physique to be promoted. I spent way more time dieting and running than I did firing weapons or studying tactics. If your genetics give you a lean body, then you are golden. You can steal, cheat and lie and be promoted. You can have the intellect of a Sea Cucumber and be promoted. You can get your people killed and be promoted. But be overweight, especially around promotion board time, and you are done. The promotion boards wanted a photo of each applicant to see if that person was overweight. They never asked for IQ scores.
This has given us an Officer Corps that is way too concerned with looks. It has produced a generation of leaders who are cross country runners. And they understand teamwork like cross country runners. Which is to say that they have no concept of teamwork. It’s all about who crosses the finish line first, and screw everyone else.
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