Posted by
Steve on Saturday, May 02, 2009 12:16:54 PM
Prior to the election on November 4, 2008, Europeans were polled and 58% said they would like to see a weaker America. A larger percentage said they liked Barack Obama. Well, they got their wish. Barack Obama is the President of the United States. He is projecting weakness wherever he goes. Our friends have noticed. Our enemies have noticed. Unfortunately, most of our own country has not noticed.
Recently I wrote about how the leadership of this country is a bunch of cowards. I still believe that. The Obama administration has not given me any indication that they have any backbone at all. But, what else would you expect from a liberal Democrat? I do not know, but I believe that the promotion of political officers over fighting officers has accelerated. Political officers have been getting promoted faster than fighting officers for a long time. As a result, our officer corps is heavily laden with politicians not men who can lead an army.
We have been in this situation before and it always cost us a lot of lives before we got things straightened out. During the Civil War, it wasn’t until President Lincoln found General Grant that he got it right. That took him three years and many thousands of men lost. During World War II we had political leaders in the armed forces prior to the war. As a result, our military was not ready to fight. We lost decisively in the early battles of the war. It wasn’t until we found fighting leaders that we finally started winning.
Right now, when we find a fighting leader in our Army or Marines, he is put up on charges of misconduct. The political officers do that because a fighting officer comes in and takes charge. So, they have to take him out any way that they can. They nit pick battle reports and find any excuse to pull our fighting officers in on charges. That way they have a harder time for promotion or they get removed from the military altogether. The political types avoid fighting at all costs.
I wonder what would happen if we were attacked during the Obama administration. I believe that our military would fight as well as possible. The problem is usually the leadership, not the soldiers on the ground. In every time that we were unprepared for war, the individual soldier was the best. The generals that were leading the soldiers were not prepared to actually lead men into combat. That was the problem. I wonder how prepared our military leadership really is. I know that they will say that they are prepared. But, I mean when the chips are down, what would they do? That is something that can never be answered without being put in that situation.
I do know that their political leaders in Washington will have the urge to cut and run at the first shot. What would our military do if our President and other political leaders abandoned them? Would they stand tall and defend the country regardless of the cowardice of the leadership? Or would they succumb to the contagious cowardice that overcame the political leadership? I know that at least there would be some that would stand tall and fight to the last. I would hope that the number standing tall would include all of them. You can never count on political leaders because they have a tendency to bend with the strongest wind. Political generals may be the same. I do not know.
I am just throwing this out as a thought question. I fully support the military. My father served in the 99th Infantry as a Second Lieutenant during WW II. My mother worked as a Secretary in an Admiral’s office in San Francisco during WW II. My father’s primary battle was the Battle of the Bulge. Other members of my family have fought in every war from the Revolutionary War to WW II, most as officers. I did not serve in the military because I flunked the physical. My brother was too young to serve in Vietnam. I am also a student of military history and always like to ask the why and how questions. This is pure speculation. But I have thought about it for a few days and it had to get out.