Some years back, I had both of my sons take the ASVAB test just for grins. One scored a 99 and the other a 98, better than I thought they would do. Since then, every now and then I get a call or text from a recruiter, usually for the Navy's Nuclear Power program, asking if they're interested. Initially I've told them not unless they drop the Covid vaccine mandates. Now I think I would tell them the military has gone too woke for either of my sons to ever want to join. I just hope they both get past age 26 and are no longer eligible for the draft before Biden gets us into some stupid war. My brother, father, uncles and grandfather all served and I'm proud of their service, but no way do I want my kids going into an institution I no longer have any respect for.
I served 4 years active duty and 10 years in Reserve, mostly at the Pentagon -- and I share your opinion. Thankfully, both of my children are beyond draft age.
Due to declining enlistment numbers the military has decided to reduce the number of abbreviated terms service members will be required to know. Going forward, LGBTQIA will be the only abbreviation acknowledged by any service member. Our greatest fight will be helping everyone to remember new letters as genders are added to the spectrum. If needed, physical fitness and marksman training will be suspended to allow more time for this vital memory training.
Without any doubt in my mind, our enemies around the globe just love what these radical leftists are doing to our military! I joined the Navy in 1979, coming out of the Jimmy Carter debacle and embarrassment... The squadron I worked in was in shambles at every level. 100% turnaround after 4-years of Reagan. Our new "woke" military must have President Reagan spinning in his grave!
As for Politico? I love the fact that people like Chris suffer through reading it, so he can put the right spin on their reality. Otherwise, I'm positive I would never hear of or see it!
Just to be contrarian, I think these woke moves make "America's enemies" who ever they are worry more, not less.
Stupidity, denial of reality, cultish fanaticism for mad ideals and ideas, and a corporate sector so enmeshed with politics and vice versa that from the outside, the US military simply looks like a corporate enforcer, not a force for defending sovereignity, people and the home territory.
Madness and stupidity plus hypocrisy makes for unpredictability which is way scarier than a nation playing overt realpolitik, like US/NATO and USSR/Warsaw pact did during the Cold War.
It's a "better the Devil you know"-kind of thing, is what I'm fishing for.
i think also it's clear to just about everyone who aint American that the focus of our govt and our elite class is no longer on this country and its welfare but entirely on the maintenance and extension of the GAE and its many tentacles.
in fact it may just benefit and be preferential to our global elite class for the USA to dissolve in a spasm of media-induced mass hysteria so no other national power centers can counter and check their desires, thus allowing them to focus clearly on the next country they need to bring to heel. (maybe akin to how the Ukrainian border is sacrosanct but ours is white-supremacist oppression.)
some decades it's great to live in the heart of the Empire, some decades it sucks ;)
Yah. I keep thinking of Saddam Hussein whenever Ukraine is brought up. He was a useful tool against Iran and a check on Turkish and Saudi ambitions in the region.
I wonder how surprised he was when the rulership of the US at the time decided to toss him out as surplus to requirements just because he invaded Kuwait, and focus on becoming better buddies with Saudi and Turkey instead.
Zelensky better watch out, because the second he and his nation is no longer needed, they'll be left to fend for themsleves against vengeful russians unable to reach their real opponents.
To be very clear, as far as I know most europeans are endeared to USAmericans as a people. The politics and power-plays of your political-corporate [redacted] though, that sets off the ole' "Yankee Go Home!"-reflex among most.
"Zelensky better watch out, because the second he and his nation is no longer needed, they'll be left to fend for themsleves against vengeful russians unable to reach their real opponents."
No doubt about it, he will be getting the President Diem treatment once he's outlived his usefulness.
Clever. Twenty years from now we'll just send the children of the Ukrainian refugees, we take in, back to win the war for Ukraine that we already "won" for them.
Speaking as one of your Pentagon/CIA victims, I can confirm that sentiment. In fact, I found to my astonishment that, when sounding out a platoon of the US Marine Corp, they were great people and they explained things to me that our own defence force refuses to. In what sane world does a patriotic resistance fighter get on better with the invading troops than with those trained and paid to defend us?
"In what sane world does a patriotic resistance fighter get on better with the invading troops than with those trained and paid to defend us?"
When they both realise and acknowledge that their rulers does not respect them or anything else but are purely driven by venal passions, therefore treating their soldiery - volunteer or otherwise - as serfs.
My grandfather was stationed at the border during WW2, and he could tell how the german Wehrmacht-soldiers and the swedish soldiers would arrange patrol schedules so they could swap stories, play cards, share a coffee and generally keep things friendly and peaceful. The officers on both sides were less than amused. Then again, officer is like mountaineering: the higher you go the less oxygen your brain gets...
Heh heh. I think you have put this in perspective. The Euro officers swore it will never happen again... the utterly repugnant Xmas day football match between English and German troops.
As an army cadet I was a crack shot but every time they gave me an upside down stripe I was stripped of it the same day for insubordination. This shamefull warp in my character went on my file "Tony is incapable of accepting authority". To this day I have no idea why anyone should.
Which is different to recognising somebody as having skills that should be emulated. Got no problem with that. Thus, I would have little respect for a soldier who followed a sargeant who broke operational silence to ask his corporal for some lippy.
Re "...the US military simply looks like a corporate enforcer"
It IS a corporate enforcer and that's the problem. It's been that way a long time. Most big militaries have been that though I guess. A form of protection racket, licensed by the government.
This is the baffling thing about this cultural moment. The elites believe Tucker has lost and they have won. They then attempt to retrospectively explain how that is so, because of the clever stuff they have been saying. Possibly they have forgotten their classic star wars history (probably because they only watch the woke new versions).....by striking Tucker down they have likely made him more powerful than they could ever imagine.
We're starting to have the same problem. The men we want for military service are less and less inclined to try it out. Some years back, they had such trouble getting active career military to volunteer for foreign service that they made it mandatory. Main reason people don't want to do foreign service is this:
Olden days, that meant wearing a Blue Beret like on Cyprus or in Africa.
Since we entered into partnership with NATO in the 1990s, being a member in all but name, foreign service has come to mean swedish politicians (most of them "conscientous objectors") offer our soldiery to fight in the US' wars to curry favour with DC for the benefit of swedish businesses and to feel important.
I know for a fact (since I've tried it) that I pass the initial physio/strength-tests better than the average 18-year old.
If you like, you can find Youtube-videos of british and US soldiers checking out and commenting on how our guys and girls train: much better than my ramblings.
Helpfully, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel provides a list of activities that the Hatch Act prohibits. Perhaps somebody in the Pentagon could find time to read it.
I fear the current military is just a command away from turning on American civilians that don’t believe the current leadership has our country’s interests at heart. Where will that lead us??
Biden is absolutely right. Look at how the US military regularly triumphs in wars against farmers and herders armed with nothing but old guns and knowledge of the terrain. Oh, wait...
Seriously, Flyover Country is an awfully big place and no matter how many bombs you drop, sooner or later you have to put boots on the ground. And it would take an awful lot of boots to pacify Texas or Appalachia.
I wish I could write like you.... What a brilliant piece. It says so much about why the military sucks but also why it is important that Tucker had the guts to keep calling out the nonsense. The irony of the Tunnel to Towers ads running on his show -- which respects the military versus the fools in charge these days who respect only advancement, is heartbreaking.
You are very right Trish. I look at it slightly differently in that Gary Sinise and his group, and the Tunnels for Towers group celebrate the service members themselves. While they don’t necessarily talk bad about the leadership, I think it’s smart that they don’t, but it’s all about taking care of the injured service members. Having served for 22 years my family and I still support the troops, but we hardly recognize what the leadership is doing.
I was someone who wore the black beret as a Ranger. Yes, it was an idiotic move to make the change, but the military leaders have been making idiotic decisions since long before you were in Ft. Benning. Instead of solving real morale problems, they deal in eyewash.
When you wore the black beret as a Ranger, it was a symbol of an earned status, so it meant something. It's the principle of giving everyone a gold medal so everyone is a winner.
Heinlein published "Starship Troopers" in 1959. Two years before Eisenhower's famous "beware the military/industrial complex" farewell address. The whole book was a prelude to that speech, and perhaps a warning as to where we were going - or have gone. We have turned college diplomas into 'participation awards'.
Great, the DOD is weighing in on the culture wars instead of focusing on improving the military's ability to win actual wars. I cannot wait to see what messaging we get from them in June. If only they could signal military strength to foreign foes as readily as they signal woke virtue to the NPC Karens at home.
But those are the only wars they think they can win! They aren’t planning for real war, they’re giving all of our arms and supplies away to Ukraine. I spent 22 years in the army and retired 1997. This is a whole different world of military service. Everybody else is woke, and I’m asleep. Chris, thank you for your service.
Excellent point. Besides getting Bin Laden, we never had any sort of concrete, winnable objective over there (at least not that I saw). And now our military is a shambles because we turned it into an MBA-designed profiteering operation.
Apr 26, 2023·edited Apr 26, 2023Liked by Chris Bray
As a voracious reader, I feel I must limit paid subscriptions to a bare minimum. However, I have finally broken down and enrolled because I find you to be the most interesting writer on Substack. You get the Zeitgeist at a deep level IMO.
That Lloyd Austin was previously on the board of Raytheon before becoming US Secretary of Defense and that his whole job seems to have been to replace the revenue stream that was lost by pulling out of Afghanistan with a nice little dustup in Ukraine should have no bearing on how much credibility you put into his criticisms of Tucker Carlson. He's really just got America's best interests at heart, really, and he's the first of something, I'm sure, so you're not allowed to criticize.
In other news, they just lowered the fitness standards to get into the military. No connection whatsoever to all the distraction, I mean attention, we're paying to how "diverse" our military is.
Some years back, I had both of my sons take the ASVAB test just for grins. One scored a 99 and the other a 98, better than I thought they would do. Since then, every now and then I get a call or text from a recruiter, usually for the Navy's Nuclear Power program, asking if they're interested. Initially I've told them not unless they drop the Covid vaccine mandates. Now I think I would tell them the military has gone too woke for either of my sons to ever want to join. I just hope they both get past age 26 and are no longer eligible for the draft before Biden gets us into some stupid war. My brother, father, uncles and grandfather all served and I'm proud of their service, but no way do I want my kids going into an institution I no longer have any respect for.
I served 4 years active duty and 10 years in Reserve, mostly at the Pentagon -- and I share your opinion. Thankfully, both of my children are beyond draft age.
Ditto! My husband and I both served but I would NEVER want my sons near this military.
Your not alone. See recruitment numbers.
A noble mission, the way to go! 👌 Keep 'em recruiters pestered with truth they otherwise are largely insulated from.
--
⏸ PSA (public service announcement) 😊
ASVAB = Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery; ACU = Army Combat Uniform; BDU = Battle Dress Uniform; bonus: DCU = Desert Camouflage Uniform; OCP = Operational Camouflage Pattern ⏹️
Due to declining enlistment numbers the military has decided to reduce the number of abbreviated terms service members will be required to know. Going forward, LGBTQIA will be the only abbreviation acknowledged by any service member. Our greatest fight will be helping everyone to remember new letters as genders are added to the spectrum. If needed, physical fitness and marksman training will be suspended to allow more time for this vital memory training.
It all remind me of Tom Lehrer's 'It makes a fellow proud to be a soldier.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0L_rD7CCe4
Much obliged. Military jargon and acronyms are like a some kind of slang or cant.
Heck, I understand the guys talking jive in 'Airplane!' better than military acronym-speak, even in my native tongue.
Yet another example of the blatant distortion of what Tucker has said. But, then most people don't have the energy to find out what the truth is.
Lazy people are the only reason we are in the position we are in! It has taken a lot of years, but her we are...
I know I don't have the energy to follow up on many things. That's why what Chris does is important, as you point out in your other comment.
That's the joys of decades-long walled-in comfy life for ya, blissfully safeguarded from slightest draughts of real challenges 😒
Without any doubt in my mind, our enemies around the globe just love what these radical leftists are doing to our military! I joined the Navy in 1979, coming out of the Jimmy Carter debacle and embarrassment... The squadron I worked in was in shambles at every level. 100% turnaround after 4-years of Reagan. Our new "woke" military must have President Reagan spinning in his grave!
As for Politico? I love the fact that people like Chris suffer through reading it, so he can put the right spin on their reality. Otherwise, I'm positive I would never hear of or see it!
Suffer is right
It's an ugly job but somebody has to do it ... ^;
Just to be contrarian, I think these woke moves make "America's enemies" who ever they are worry more, not less.
Stupidity, denial of reality, cultish fanaticism for mad ideals and ideas, and a corporate sector so enmeshed with politics and vice versa that from the outside, the US military simply looks like a corporate enforcer, not a force for defending sovereignity, people and the home territory.
Madness and stupidity plus hypocrisy makes for unpredictability which is way scarier than a nation playing overt realpolitik, like US/NATO and USSR/Warsaw pact did during the Cold War.
It's a "better the Devil you know"-kind of thing, is what I'm fishing for.
excellent points!
i think also it's clear to just about everyone who aint American that the focus of our govt and our elite class is no longer on this country and its welfare but entirely on the maintenance and extension of the GAE and its many tentacles.
in fact it may just benefit and be preferential to our global elite class for the USA to dissolve in a spasm of media-induced mass hysteria so no other national power centers can counter and check their desires, thus allowing them to focus clearly on the next country they need to bring to heel. (maybe akin to how the Ukrainian border is sacrosanct but ours is white-supremacist oppression.)
some decades it's great to live in the heart of the Empire, some decades it sucks ;)
Yah. I keep thinking of Saddam Hussein whenever Ukraine is brought up. He was a useful tool against Iran and a check on Turkish and Saudi ambitions in the region.
I wonder how surprised he was when the rulership of the US at the time decided to toss him out as surplus to requirements just because he invaded Kuwait, and focus on becoming better buddies with Saudi and Turkey instead.
Zelensky better watch out, because the second he and his nation is no longer needed, they'll be left to fend for themsleves against vengeful russians unable to reach their real opponents.
To be very clear, as far as I know most europeans are endeared to USAmericans as a people. The politics and power-plays of your political-corporate [redacted] though, that sets off the ole' "Yankee Go Home!"-reflex among most.
"Zelensky better watch out, because the second he and his nation is no longer needed, they'll be left to fend for themsleves against vengeful russians unable to reach their real opponents."
No doubt about it, he will be getting the President Diem treatment once he's outlived his usefulness.
Clever. Twenty years from now we'll just send the children of the Ukrainian refugees, we take in, back to win the war for Ukraine that we already "won" for them.
wow good thinkin...and after 20 yrs here we can send the boys back as girls and vice versa...the blessings of liberty! ;)
Speaking as one of your Pentagon/CIA victims, I can confirm that sentiment. In fact, I found to my astonishment that, when sounding out a platoon of the US Marine Corp, they were great people and they explained things to me that our own defence force refuses to. In what sane world does a patriotic resistance fighter get on better with the invading troops than with those trained and paid to defend us?
"In what sane world does a patriotic resistance fighter get on better with the invading troops than with those trained and paid to defend us?"
When they both realise and acknowledge that their rulers does not respect them or anything else but are purely driven by venal passions, therefore treating their soldiery - volunteer or otherwise - as serfs.
My grandfather was stationed at the border during WW2, and he could tell how the german Wehrmacht-soldiers and the swedish soldiers would arrange patrol schedules so they could swap stories, play cards, share a coffee and generally keep things friendly and peaceful. The officers on both sides were less than amused. Then again, officer is like mountaineering: the higher you go the less oxygen your brain gets...
Heh heh. I think you have put this in perspective. The Euro officers swore it will never happen again... the utterly repugnant Xmas day football match between English and German troops.
As an army cadet I was a crack shot but every time they gave me an upside down stripe I was stripped of it the same day for insubordination. This shamefull warp in my character went on my file "Tony is incapable of accepting authority". To this day I have no idea why anyone should.
Which is different to recognising somebody as having skills that should be emulated. Got no problem with that. Thus, I would have little respect for a soldier who followed a sargeant who broke operational silence to ask his corporal for some lippy.
Re "...the US military simply looks like a corporate enforcer"
It IS a corporate enforcer and that's the problem. It's been that way a long time. Most big militaries have been that though I guess. A form of protection racket, licensed by the government.
This is only true if it is a conscious ruse. I cannot see that being the case here.
Sorry. I said The Gipper would be rolling in his grave before I saw your comment.
Carlson provided high intensity ventilation of some very smug tents. God's work, if you ask me.
Since there’s no such thing as a “woman”, how can there be any such thing as a “mysoginist”?
This is the baffling thing about this cultural moment. The elites believe Tucker has lost and they have won. They then attempt to retrospectively explain how that is so, because of the clever stuff they have been saying. Possibly they have forgotten their classic star wars history (probably because they only watch the woke new versions).....by striking Tucker down they have likely made him more powerful than they could ever imagine.
They are scared. They're falling. We should push.
Better yet, tell them they're falling; since the warning comes from an " evil enemy", they'll ignore their fall.
Well Rikard we're getting to the point where 50 and 60 somethings could defend the country better than these soiled boys. Including Sweden
We're starting to have the same problem. The men we want for military service are less and less inclined to try it out. Some years back, they had such trouble getting active career military to volunteer for foreign service that they made it mandatory. Main reason people don't want to do foreign service is this:
Olden days, that meant wearing a Blue Beret like on Cyprus or in Africa.
Since we entered into partnership with NATO in the 1990s, being a member in all but name, foreign service has come to mean swedish politicians (most of them "conscientous objectors") offer our soldiery to fight in the US' wars to curry favour with DC for the benefit of swedish businesses and to feel important.
I know for a fact (since I've tried it) that I pass the initial physio/strength-tests better than the average 18-year old.
If you like, you can find Youtube-videos of british and US soldiers checking out and commenting on how our guys and girls train: much better than my ramblings.
Assuming, of course, that there is a country left to defend. At the rate we're going ...
Hear, Hear!
It's really demoralizing Andy.
That's what they want.
Helpfully, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel provides a list of activities that the Hatch Act prohibits. Perhaps somebody in the Pentagon could find time to read it.
An excellent point.
The law is only there to be enforced against their political opponents.
And our enemies just keep licking their chops.
At the risk of being a broken record, this is how the end of western civilization happens.
Keep saying it. Because it's 100% true.
"This is how the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper." [T S Elliot -The Hollow Men 1925]
I fear the current military is just a command away from turning on American civilians that don’t believe the current leadership has our country’s interests at heart. Where will that lead us??
Well the press already has. You make a very good point. And it is in the realm of possibility.
Because usually totalitarianism first captures the military and then the press.
Don't forget Xiden already said:
"You would need an F-15 not a gun to fight the government."
I take that threat seriously
Biden is absolutely right. Look at how the US military regularly triumphs in wars against farmers and herders armed with nothing but old guns and knowledge of the terrain. Oh, wait...
Seriously, Flyover Country is an awfully big place and no matter how many bombs you drop, sooner or later you have to put boots on the ground. And it would take an awful lot of boots to pacify Texas or Appalachia.
Exactly. Try doing the same thing in Florida or the midwest. Good luck government.
I wish I could write like you.... What a brilliant piece. It says so much about why the military sucks but also why it is important that Tucker had the guts to keep calling out the nonsense. The irony of the Tunnel to Towers ads running on his show -- which respects the military versus the fools in charge these days who respect only advancement, is heartbreaking.
You are very right Trish. I look at it slightly differently in that Gary Sinise and his group, and the Tunnels for Towers group celebrate the service members themselves. While they don’t necessarily talk bad about the leadership, I think it’s smart that they don’t, but it’s all about taking care of the injured service members. Having served for 22 years my family and I still support the troops, but we hardly recognize what the leadership is doing.
I was someone who wore the black beret as a Ranger. Yes, it was an idiotic move to make the change, but the military leaders have been making idiotic decisions since long before you were in Ft. Benning. Instead of solving real morale problems, they deal in eyewash.
When you wore the black beret as a Ranger, it was a symbol of an earned status, so it meant something. It's the principle of giving everyone a gold medal so everyone is a winner.
That scene from 'Starship Troopers' (the novel) when mr Rasczak pins a fake "Winner"-note to Juan Rico's shirt in the classroom comes to mind.
Heinlein published "Starship Troopers" in 1959. Two years before Eisenhower's famous "beware the military/industrial complex" farewell address. The whole book was a prelude to that speech, and perhaps a warning as to where we were going - or have gone. We have turned college diplomas into 'participation awards'.
That may have been the first sign of the trophyism that is now rampant everywhere.
The zenith of America was the day before the idea of participation trophies
Great, the DOD is weighing in on the culture wars instead of focusing on improving the military's ability to win actual wars. I cannot wait to see what messaging we get from them in June. If only they could signal military strength to foreign foes as readily as they signal woke virtue to the NPC Karens at home.
But those are the only wars they think they can win! They aren’t planning for real war, they’re giving all of our arms and supplies away to Ukraine. I spent 22 years in the army and retired 1997. This is a whole different world of military service. Everybody else is woke, and I’m asleep. Chris, thank you for your service.
It started a long time ago when men decided it was okay to be emasculated.
More testosterone in the military imo.
Maybe they mandate that instead of mRNA juice.
This is a lot of shit-talk for an institution that took twenty years to lose a war in Afghanistan.
The point was never to actually win, just make money.
Excellent point. Besides getting Bin Laden, we never had any sort of concrete, winnable objective over there (at least not that I saw). And now our military is a shambles because we turned it into an MBA-designed profiteering operation.
As a voracious reader, I feel I must limit paid subscriptions to a bare minimum. However, I have finally broken down and enrolled because I find you to be the most interesting writer on Substack. You get the Zeitgeist at a deep level IMO.
Godspeed.
Thanks! Much appreciated.
That Lloyd Austin was previously on the board of Raytheon before becoming US Secretary of Defense and that his whole job seems to have been to replace the revenue stream that was lost by pulling out of Afghanistan with a nice little dustup in Ukraine should have no bearing on how much credibility you put into his criticisms of Tucker Carlson. He's really just got America's best interests at heart, really, and he's the first of something, I'm sure, so you're not allowed to criticize.
In other news, they just lowered the fitness standards to get into the military. No connection whatsoever to all the distraction, I mean attention, we're paying to how "diverse" our military is.