Something is Rotten in the Pentagon
American Spectator,
by
Jed Babbin
Original Article
Posted By: Pluperfect,
7/15/2019 5:04:16 AM
The strains of almost eighteen years of continuous war, Obama’s massive budget cuts, and a tide of damaging politics have eroded critical parts of our military. What has held together, until last week, was the most critical element: the trust that must exist between the civilian leadership and the military of all ranks.
A huge blow to that trust has just occurred on Secretary of the Navy Richard Spencer’s watch. Another failure of leadership, both similar and different, is taking place about the nomination of Gen. John Hyten, Commander of U.S. Strategic Command, to be the next vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff.
On May 24, the Senate
Reply 1 - Posted by:
Paperpuncher 7/15/2019 6:55:44 AM (No. 123853)
Bingo #1
34 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
Marjbaldwin 7/15/2019 7:32:27 AM (No. 123872)
It has always been very encouraging but at the same time most disconcerting that President Trump has had the rebuilding and expansion of the military as a top priority. As if he knows what it is going to be needed for, and where....
Imagine serving in the armed forces under a president who you just knew sympathized with the enemy (2008-2016)...
34 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
Clinger 7/15/2019 8:15:59 AM (No. 123901)
#3, Like Patton serving under FDR.
28 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Rumblehog 7/15/2019 8:54:51 AM (No. 123964)
Leftists are corrosive to this country one drip at a time. President Trump must appoint Secretaries of Army, Navy, Air Force, etc. to rip the political throats out of the bureaucracies that have entrenched themselves in the Pentagon after 8 years of the muslim manchild. Fire as many civilians as possible starting at the Executive Civil Service ranks (t's a good start), and let the chips fall where they may. Paying out severances and other financial burdens is NOTHING compared to the damage done by leftist Demonrats who despise our military and American way of life. In a different time they'd be tried for treason, but I digress.
33 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
HotRod 7/15/2019 9:01:55 AM (No. 123978)
Agree with #1. To further explain the problem, the top military leadership is infested with politicians, instead of warriors. Politicians belong in congress or the administration, not in military leadership. The military is not (supposed to be) a political organization or a social program. The military is supposed to kill the enemy and break his things when called upon. That doesn't sound nice to liberals, but that is the very thing that allows liberals, socialists, and communists to live in America and spout anti-American rhetoric from the halls of congress!
31 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Bur Oak 7/15/2019 9:05:21 AM (No. 123984)
Obviously something is wrong. James Clapper an admitted liar and who knows what else, is a retired Air Force lieutenant general!
12 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
Strike3 7/15/2019 9:24:05 AM (No. 124011)
The article is sensationalist nonsense.
There are always big egos and strong personalities in the top brass of the military. It goes with the territory. We did lose most of our best leadership under Barry the Communist Coward but incidents like this have been handled in the past inside the community, not in the media.
As for misbehavior at cocktail parties, what are cocktail parties for? A female officer who can't handle a pat on the butt is not fit to be an officer. We could get rid of all females in the military and we won't have the problem but we will lose a lot of fine people. This is nothing but an overblown personality conflict.
There are two kinds of military officers, administrators and war fighters. One is politically correct and the other is trained to kill the enemy, period. Sometimes the two do not mix well but the job gets done.
6 people like this.
Oh, my...another sincere article of nothingness. The good admiral "retired", forced out. No one reading this article knows why exactly. The premise is this four star was punished for seeking advice from a former aide who was accused of misconduct with the ladies at a boozy Christmas party...and who retired himself. But that's surmisal. Couldn't be that the admiral has his own skeletons of some sort that quietly came to light...oh, no.
We are to believe a brave, wonderful leader of men, soon to be the CNO, just skulked away for such a nebulous accusation. And that's the type one prefers as our top admiral... I suspect there is more than all this lurking silently in the background.
Mitch McConnell and his brave, fighting-for-you Republican Senate majority can fix the issues of vacancies and hearings. Like everything else, though, it seems poor Mitch is stymied by rules and courtesies. Awwww...poor Mitch. He needs a bigger majority! Please send money.
4 people like this.
The military is thoroughly infiltrated by deep state operatives. Evidence for this surfaced well before Trump’s presidency. To wit, the massive whitewash if the Major Hassan case, the Ft. Hood shooting which left a score of Americans dead or gravely injured. Hassan, an Army major and psychiatrist, will pay the price for his crimes as he has been sentenced to death. But the Army’s investigation of the murders and conclusions drawn from that investigation are 100% pure USDA prime horse hockey.
The Army was either predisposed or ordered by Obama to find that the explanation for Hassan’s insanity was workplace rage, in the style of the disgruntled postal worker. To draw this conclusion, the task force assigned to write this fiction needed to ignore a mountain of evidence that Hassan was a purebred Islamist, coached by pro terrorists from across the globe, who murdered in the shouted name of Moslem God. Hassan’s fundamentalist pedigree was fairly easy to ascertain from the evidence but the members of the panel chose to go with workplace violence rather than seek to explain how a garden variety Jihadist rose to the rank of Major and counseled mentally impaired soldiers returning from the battlefield in their midst.
The careerists and CYA specialists in the armed forces are very hard to distinguish from their first cousins in the bureaucracy or in Congress. We don’t really have civilian oversight of military affairs. We have Washington insiders watching other Washington insiders. Who’s watching the watchers?
18 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
fayebeck 7/15/2019 10:00:51 AM (No. 124067)
Now this doesn't include the "majority of rank and file soldiers" . Hannity tonight. I believe that many if not the majority of military officers will refuse to obey orders from Trump.
2 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
Congar 7/15/2019 10:10:08 AM (No. 124075)
More and more the left seems to be getting the military they want: useless in war, but looks nice for parades.
5 people like this.
My humble opinion: When it comes to getting promoted, it is that the POLITICAL Officers are ALWAYS bending the rules in a political way because they are terrified of the true warrior class.
And it is the Warrior Class that gets the job done without pussy footing around.
Need to get the Political Class type of officers out of the decision making process when it comes to the military!!
Just my opinion!!!
6 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
bighambone 7/15/2019 12:02:03 PM (No. 124240)
What everyone is talking about is the military based political “system” that exists throughout the top career bureaucratic and uniformed military leadership in the Pentagon. It is is a bridge to far to think that entrenched “system” that first and foremost was put in place over many years to ensure the personal and professional advancement and enrichment of the top levels of Pentagon based leadership can be effectively changed during one or two terms of any elected President. It is the same across the entire federal government. After all that is the “System” and as an “outsider” that is what President Trump has been up against since he was elected.
4 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
felixcat 7/15/2019 12:07:41 PM (No. 124246)
Another problem is look at what happened to President Trump's US Navy physician - Ronnie Jackson? Some woman who was jealous of his career success made an unsubstantiated complaint to Senator Testor (MT) and just like that - ADM Jackson withdraws his name on the basis of what? Some woman with a bone to pick? Illegal aliens have more due process then these men being accused of bad behavior with nothing to back up the allegation.
This is twofold problem - the good officers retired rather than serve on the hyper political correct DoD under Obama and too many women in the military. I say that as a Navy Officer veteran. As for Tailhook, without relitigating that mess, anyone (male or female) with any familiarity with the Navy fighter community knew how these men often were in such settings. Not necessarily excusing the behavior of drunken men, but Paula Coughlin knew (father a retired Naval aviator Admiral). I am woman hear me roar but don't brush up against my buttocks.
4 people like this.
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