“I told Gantz that the military is prioritizing all kinds of gadgets and technologies and things that seem sexy, but in the end it undermines preparedness,” Avivi said. “The army has really neglected these things, sometimes to a criminal extent, and that’s why we have had shortages. When you suddenly activate the entire army, you discover the extent of the problem.”
It’s amazing how common this is for every Western military, going on decades.
They always seem to assume success, and then spend their time and resources on secondary issues like whiz-bang technology, and skimp on the basics.
The only time it seems to change is when they are facing imminent defeat, like the UK after Dunkirk.
Then, at least for a while, the BS stopped and actually performed at peak. But as soon as the German invasion threat had passed, they went back to business as usual.
One would have thought that the Israel Military would see themselves in a more precarious state, and be less prone to do this stuff, but I guess not.
[Many of his soldiers were stuck with standard-issue army helmets, some from as early as the 1970s, which are not only horribly uncomfortable but possibly unsafe.]
Even anti-bacterial socks (with copper oxide) are in demand.
I once had a theory that the USSR would collapse through being unable to keep up with the bookkeeping — now I see that we have become so complex and top-heavy that we can no longer manage ourselves.
It seems inconceivable that the IDF did not respond to the reports of Hamas training for 10/7, but we apparently had reports of the 9/11 terrorists learning only how to fly but not to land.
And here is the IDF unable to provision its soldiers or provide for replacement divisions... And we are sliding back to when soldiers’ families needed to be on welfare.
This must be so very hard on the people of Israel.
What's your take on this uncle Miltie?
In late 2002, my son’s unit (Third Brigade, Third Infantry Division) became aware that shortly they would be deployed to Kuwait as a staging point for the invasion of Iraq in March of 2003. He told me this triggered a massive shopping spree on “V.D.” (Victory Drive in Columbus, Georgia adjacent to Fort Bennington) by the infantrymen of his brigade who knew that whatever they would be issued by the U.S. Army would be totally inadequate to actually get them through their deployment. Socks, sturdy rucksacks and underwear were the biggest sellers long with other essentials like reliable flashlights, weapon cleaning supplies, small mirrors and “silly string” spray cans for detecting trip wires in rooms they had to clear. When I asked him why the Army didn’t
provide adaquate amounts of these essentials, he just smiled at my naivety…
I can understand not wanting the drones to be distributed without some very careful vetting. But the rest of it?
If I know anything about supply officers it’s that while they love having a lot of supplies they absolutely hate giving it out to the grunts. They can’t keep their inventory spreadsheets all pretty if all that expensive gear is actually being used.
L
There was a story months ago about a guy buying a bunch of tactical gear from a gun shop in rural Pennsylvania. The guy explained he was buying the gear for his stepson who was a convert to Judaism and had joined the IDF and was being deployed.
The shop owner and some other customers chipped in and loaded the guy up with body armor and tactical gear to be sent to stepson in Israel.